Cliff Bleszinski’s studio was in talks to make an Alien FPS where you played as Newt
Boss Key Productions was in talks with Fox to make an FPS game in the Alien universe before its closure, according to founder Cliff Bleszinski.
Speaking on Twitter, he gave a run-down of the game where you'd play as a grown up Newt from Aliens, with Ellen Ripley as a major character.
The game never got past the initial planning stages though, and the project was shelved as Disney acquired Fox.
"Before BKP shut down we were in talks to do a new game in the Aliens franchise with Fox," Bleszinski said. "Then Disney bought them and that got lost in the shuffle, darnit.
"Ripley would be alive and be your 'Cortana/Anya.' You'd play as grown Newt. On Earth. Weyland-Yutani are weaponizing the aliens in a Black Mesa style facility and, of course, all hell breaks loose. Your robotic pal i.e. Bishop? A new one named 'Casey' after her doll in Aliens."
He went on to add that prospective game would've been an "FPS, obviously", and that all canon past Aliens - so Alien 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant - would have been kicked swiftly into the nearest bin.
Judging from Boss Key Production's life-cycle, these talks followed the well-received partnership between Fox, Sega, and Creative Assembly on Alien: Isolation in 2014, which released to critical and commercial success. However the prospective Boss Key game being an FPS suggests it would've had more of a straight action focus, as opposed to the survival horror of Isolation.
Bleszinski has been sharing stories of the last days of Boss Key Productions on social media recently, last week taking to Instagram to lament the failure of Lawbreakers, his studio's take on the hero shooter trend.
For the time being Bleszinski seems to have put game making on hold, instead taking time to write a memoir, as well as investing in non-gaming related businesses.