Is Alien Isolation Popular Enough To Have A Sequel?

Sega announced its financial reports earlier this week and Alien Isolation managed to ship over 1.76 million copies worldwide.

The critically panned Alien: Colonial Marines shipped over 1.31 million units in its first three months of going on sale. This shows that Alien Isolation proved to be somewhat more successful. Still, Sega has yet to officially a confirm a sequel for the game.

On the plus side, The Creative Assembly has been brainstorming numerous ideas for a sequel. There is a lot that can be done to make the sequel bigger and better than the original game. The Alien franchise has a big following and there’s a lot more characters and stories that can be told in this universe.

Another good thing that could warrant an Alien Isolation sequel is that the game was received pretty well by some media and gamers alike. Some people didn’t like the game, but it wasn’t as badly received as Alien: Colonial Marines.

It was also revealed recently that Alien Isolation received the most nominations at the 2015 BAFTAs. It was nominated for Best Game, British Game, Game Design, Game Innovation and Music categories. Five nominations in total is pretty good. Other award shows showed more love towards the likes of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Shadow of Mordor instead. But any positive recognition is always a good thing.

However, there are some factors that could prevent Alien Isolation from getting a proper sequel. Was shipping 1.76 million copies of the game good enough for Sega? According to a NeoGAF poster’s report, Alien Isolation under-performed according to “management expectations“.

I’m pretty sure Sega paid a lot of money to develop a game like Alien Isolation. Not only was it a long game with great design, but even Sigourney Weaver and other actors from the first movie were in the game briefly. Hollywood actors aren’t cheap to get. It’s possible Sega management would preferred if the game shipped over 2 million copies instead.

Another sad thing is that Sega as a company isn’t as successful as it used to be. There was a report earlier that Sega is restructuring and focusing more on their efforts on mobile and PC gaming. Sega might not be so willing to invest so much money on risky AAA video games. Not even Sonic games sell well anymore.

Another factor is that the Alien franchise and brand has been tainted in the past few years. There might be some people out there that have given up on the Alien franchise because of this. Apart from the aforementioned Alien: Colonial Marines, the movie Prometheus wasn’t all that well received by fans and critics either. Even though Alien Isolation is a different product, it was still associated with the damaged “Alien” brand.

Let’s hope Alien Isolation does get a sequel as there is potential in the franchise. The game is unique as it is different compared to the generic shooters that plague the video game industry today. Sadly though, not enough people bought the game to make it profitable. We’ll just have to wait and see if a sequel gets commissioned in the future.