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Time to Get Worried About That ‘Alien: Isolation’ Sequel
It’s time to get worried about that unconfirmed-but-sort-of-expected follow-up to Alien: Isolation, as Sega has recently announced their plans to cut more than 300 jobs as they shift their focus to PC and mobile development following a disappointing year. Their San Francisco office will be relocated to Southern California later this year.
This news doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the publisher’s console efforts, but it’s not good news either. It’s also worth noting that no announcement has made regarding a sequel.
In a statement issued to GameSpot, Sega Europe specifically mentioned Alien: Isolation developer Creative Assembly, which might not be affected by the transition. That’s reassuring.
Sega has had a rough time lately, and 2014 saw a massive decline in net profits from 2013. The publishing side of their business is being restructured in an effort to remedy this.
“SEGA has positioned Digital Games, particularly smartphone and PC online gaming, as a growth area and has determined to implement the following measures in order to constantly post profits by improving management efficiency while promptly promoting redistribution of management resources.”
While imperfect, Isolation is inarguably the best Alien game we’ve seen in some time. The few issues I did have with it could’ve easily been fixed by a sequel. Whether or not it’ll happen is very much in the air right now.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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