Despite first being announced by publisher Sega in 2006, development on Aliens: Colonial Marines didn't begin at Gearbox until after the title was revealed to the world.

"Everyone was just so excited that the deal got done," Gearbox President Randy Pitchford told Joystiq at a recent event for the title. "20th Century Fox, Gearbox and Sega all had to agree to do this and commit themselves to it. The fact that that deal even existed -- everyone on the business side was so excited that the deal happened that they just wanted to tell the world. So before we even started on the game they announced the deal."

Because the announcement was made so long ago, many gamers feel the game has been taking an exceptionally long time to come out. "I think there have been a couple of things that have kind of created that feeling. One thing is that it was announced before we were even started. Another thing is that there was an [Alien] RPG game in development by Obsidian which was canceled. And I think when that happened we hadn't even really shown this game or talked about it yet, so that created some confusion of, 'Wait, what was canceled?'"