Alien Breed Evolution dated on XBLA

By Robert Purchese Published 4 December, 2009

PC and PSN will follow next year.

Team 17's reincarnation of Alien Breed will be released on 16th December on Xbox Live Arcade. PC and PS3 owners must wait until next year for the game.

Alien Breed costs 800 MSP (£6.80/€9.60) and reinvents the old top-down shooter on modern day hardware. Unreal Engine 3 is under the hood and powering 3D models and environments plus new-age lighting.

There's some sort of story about aliens and spaceships, plus online or offline co-op for two. Head over to our Alien Breed Gallery for a fresh platter of screenshots.

This release will be the first episode in the planned Alien Breed Evolution trilogy, a self-published venture by Worms creator Team 17.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (62) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bremenacht #1 2 years ago

    Hoo-rah.

  • linea #2 2 years ago

    Good god I, and a friend of mind, are excited about this. I hope to hell it lives up to its pedigree. Co-op mayhem awaits!

  • bad09 #3 2 years ago

    I would prefer to wait for PC but I want to know if there is controller support. Spadge can you enlighten me please!

  • kipper #4 2 years ago

    "One again PC and PSN users have to wait. Surely there is MS money involved here."

    More likely Team 17 analysed their potential customer base and decided to prioritise the platform with the biggest market first. That makes business sense.

  • Widge #5 2 years ago

    I want it on PC but hoping for Competition Pro Joystick (clear) support.

  • Nomgle #6 2 years ago

    > I would prefer to wait for PC but I want to know if there is controller support. Spadge can you enlighten me please!

    XBox 360 controllers already work on your PC - just plug them in, and start playing ! No "support" required.

  • smernicki #7 2 years ago

    loved this on the Amiga, high hopes for this one!

  • OnlyMe #8 2 years ago

    I'll bite, will the right analogue be used for shooting, or do you shoot with the face buttons? Regardless, I look forward to it, I seriously hope you've nailed the atmoshpere and background ambience that was in the originals, seeing as that was one of the strongest features of the games.

  • el_pollo_diablo #9 2 years ago

    @ kipper - surely good business sense would be to release across all platforms at the same time. You know, in case it's shit.

  • bad09 #10 2 years ago

    @ Nomgle

    Not strictly true, I use 360 pad on my PC but it doesn't work on everything and some games have no controller support at all. Rare these days true but it still does happen! Besides you never know when a game is "optimized" for PC, which basically means you use K&M only (Mass Effect, Oblivion etc).
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/09 @ 12:51

  • Phattso #11 2 years ago

    pleasedon'tbeshitpleasedon'tbeshitpleasedon'tbeshitpleasedon 'tbeshit!

    I have on my pile of games to play over yuletide: Uncharted 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Dawn of War II. And yet the news of this game arriving in the next couple of weeks drops them all to the back of the queue. :)

  • stampax #12 2 years ago

    Will be buying when it's on psn. Disappointing i have to wait :(

    but i'll still be buying.

  • space_ace #13 2 years ago

    team 17's major theme teeming with promise

  • TheBiGW #14 2 years ago

    800 points - great price! Was expecting it to be 1200. Looking forward to this more than before now.

  • Arwin #15 2 years ago

    Unreal Engine eh? I don't think I"ve ever enjoyed a game that uses that before - hopefully this will be the first one, but I'm not keeping my hopes up!

  • Darren #16 2 years ago

    Want this for the PC so it looks like I'll have to wait until 2010 then. Nice price point though... too many of these retro revamps are overpriced IMO.

  • GamerG #17 2 years ago

    "One again PC and PSN users have to wait. Surely there is MS money involved here. "

    How pathetic, you really believe MS will pay out to have a timed exclusive on an Alien Breed XBLA game?

    Truth is, devs want to bring games to 360 first and foremost because that's where they can make the most money the fastest, once they have the cash the team can switch to porting it to other consoles for some additional pocket money.

  • Skeletor #18 2 years ago

    @20charactersmax
    ...and you believe this will sell on the PC? People will pirate it, as always.
    Fact is, XBLA is where the money's at. I like the fair price, 1st day purchase.

  • spadge #19 2 years ago

    Thanks for the comments. There's no MS money behind this, it was a decision to lead back on XBLA in 2007 when we signed the title. There's no 'dark' reasoning behind it. PC is pretty much there, we'll be beta'ing that early next year and PS3 is still in dev and will arrive a little later.

    The game has a demo on launch (obviously) and we think it's very honestly and keenly priced. It's got a lot of TLC in it as people at the Leeds Eurogamer event saw.

  • Bremenacht #20 2 years ago

    Some people who posted reports on the games at the EG expo weren't completely won over by this game, but I find it impossible not to be excited by a new AB.

  • JDFreeman #21 2 years ago

    Damn was hoping it would be 4 player, but still the Amiga game was superb. Will definately be getting this one.

  • Bremenacht #22 2 years ago

    spadge - Have you considered WiiWare at all? AB with Wiimote/Nunchuck could be good.

  • spadge #23 2 years ago

    @ Bremenacht

    It depends on expectations. We are a $10 arcade release, not a $10m AAA 150-200 man team title! I'd suggest it's fairly slick for the 800pts, but people can judge for themselves.

  • steviepunk #24 2 years ago

    @GamerG

    Yes, I would believe that MS pay for exclusives on XBLA.
    However in this instance I think given the release date that the deadlines have been tight, so it could have been a choice between having one platform ready before Christmas, or having all three ready together after Christmas. Console versions will probably have a better sell through rate (though don't know what they will be using for distribution on the PC, I suppose that Steam users would likely snap this up), which then leads to Xbox or PS3? Given that the Xbox is well known to be easier to develop for, then there are fewer potential issues likely to crop up in hitting the release date..


    Anyway, 800 points, I'm sold :)

  • spadge #25 2 years ago

    @ Bremenacht

    We have yes, but nothing in dev right now, a new Worms title for Wiiware is almost ready for release, but the Wii market is very difficult to ascertain, whereas we think this is pretty safe in terms of the demographic of 360 users (XBLA especially).

  • BiscuitBase #26 2 years ago

    It's equal parts OLD SKOOL and NU SKOOL!!!

    It's NU-LD SKOOL!!

  • Eraysor #27 2 years ago

    800 points? Good work Team 17.

  • devinshockwell #28 2 years ago

    That's really excellent at 800 MSP! I had feared a 1200 MSP point which would have turned me off because I'm tight like that! At 800 it's a done deal, really hits the sweet spot and the XBOX controller wins hands down for these types of arcade games. I'd definately go for the 360 over the other versions for this reason alone, just a pity you have to pay for LIVE :(

    spadge, is it true each episode features a mini boss half way through then a mega boss to finish off each game? Also what sort of time frame does Team 17 have in mind for the subsequent 2 episodes? If the series proves a success would the team consider pushing for more DLC and maybe even a quadrilogy to round things off?
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/09 @ 15:06

  • Kikekun #29 2 years ago

    Congratulations for the release, Martyn! This will be a day one purchase for me.
    Rico´s art on the original made me want to work in games!
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/09 @ 15:11

  • Luckyjim #30 2 years ago

    Nice to see it's getting a PSN release. Loved Alien Breed.

  • hiddenranbir #31 2 years ago

    ALIEN BREED!

    HELL TO THE YES!

    Btw, that level where you had to escape on a timer because of a bomb, very cruel!

  • spadge #32 2 years ago

    We're fully committed to the 3 episodes at the moment, each one has significant playable content in single player, with additional levels for multiplayer/co-op. Each episode has some very different features and if anything, they get better and better due to the team improving/enhancing as they went. Therefore if people enjoy 1, then theres an excellent chance they'll love 2 and 3 too, which is the point.

    It's been a different experience developing 3 stand-alone titles in a series, much different to a single game of say 15-16 stages, for each stand alone game, all the levels and content matters and is in focus more, much more than say level 8 of 15 is perhaps 'just another stage' in a larger title. I guess developers might understand what I mean by that.

    The episodic thing is an experiment and there's simply no way we could really afford to take the risk to develop a single project the scale/quality/production of this and release at anything like 800pts (developing U3 titles with a team of 30-40 staff is not peanuts!)

    Not sure about the timings just yet. The 2nd episode is about to enter it's final testing phase and 3 isn't too far behind, I'd imagine we're looking at 10-12 weeks between episodes possibly, but that's purely a guess at this stage.

    The digital publishing arena, although in it's infancy, is very exciting for an indie like ourselves, so we're trying to give it a good shot here with playable, good quality titles at the right price.

  • devinshockwell #33 2 years ago

    Just remembered from my old Amiga days, when I bought Alien Breed II brand spanking new from the shop I was surprised to find Zeewolf by Binary Asylum also included, not just a demo the full game mind you! Nothing on the box indicated this was meant to be included for free! So I'm curious if this was actually meant to be in with Alien Breed II or just some extra they chucked in to get it out of the floppy disk authoring plant? It was a nice bonus all the same and convinced me to buy Zeewolf 2 when it was released.

  • spadge #34 2 years ago

    Nothing to do with us...

  • devinshockwell #35 2 years ago

    Thanks for the reply spadge, this topic made me all nostalgic as you might have noticed from my previous post!

    Don't suppose I have a chance of finding Zeewolf included with the download for episode 1! :)

    On the PC front I take it you have STEAM singled out for the digital distribution on PC? Although I hear detractors of the service, asides from a few hiccups I am much impressed. Take it from someone who has installed operating systems several times over. Just leaving STEAM on overnight for the installation of my games is a delight compared to sitting in front of the computer for hours swapping discs and clicking 'okay install' every half an hour!

    Also the STEAM sales are something else and quite new to gaming. It's often the case that after years of work the game is released to retail and bang it's all over! It seems to make more sense to incorporate a slow burning model of release through networks such as STEAM. You can still make a bang upon release but the software stays in full view readily available and bolstered by sales a few months down the line. At least that's my 2 cents, is this the kinda long term strategy Team 17 has in mind for the PC version spadge.

    spadge a couple of extra questions presuming it will be on STEAM!

    1) Will you have achievements in the PC version?
    2) Any support for STEAM CLOUD, a utility through STEAM which saves your files on-line such as games, scores etc etc.
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/09 @ 16:27

  • TheBiGW #36 2 years ago

    Spadge - are you planning to offer episode 3 at a discount for people who already bought 1 and 2?

  • menage #37 2 years ago

    Awesome, this and Pixeljunk will make Xmas a litle less dull.

  • newell123 #38 2 years ago

    @ spadge

    I remember talking to you at the leeds expo while having a brilliant time witnessing the on screen carnage of alien breed! You were saying that the game would likely by 1200 points, shadow complex was recently out and had shown that people were prepared to pay quite a lot of money for a digitally released game - if the quality was there. Obviously youve gone for the kind of production values that Chair went for and I think the level of polish on Alien Breed really shines through. SO - my question is why has it been dropped down to 800 points (which seems like great value) - is that to do with the broader picture of having three episodes - do you think three 1200 hits is too much for people wanting to eventually buy the whole trilogy?

    cheers

    will

  • spadge #39 2 years ago

    We felt with the series being episodic, 800pts was a better price point and whilst we think each of the games as a stand alone can compete with a lot of the better XBLA titles, its essentially a new IP and we thought it would be good will and give our series the best chance. We'd like to think that for many, this makes it a no-brainer.

    I'm not 100% sure on what's supported on the PC Steam version, I'll have someone feedback on that. We'll be releasing a beta in January that will allow people to play what is the trial map on 360, but I don't think we're expecting many beta issues. The controls have been modified for PC, but I haven't played it myself.

  • bad09 #40 2 years ago

    "The controls have been modified for PC"

    Oh dear, that's normally dev speak for no controller support. Please let me be wrong!

  • Dizzy #41 2 years ago

    "How pathetic, you really believe MS will pay out to have a timed exclusive on an Alien Breed XBLA game? "

    Some people will believe anything. Wanne bet he has a tin foil hat at home against evil MS rays?

  • spadge #42 2 years ago

    @bad, I'd be very surprised as the PC one was developed using 360-style PC pads. I just haven't had any hands-on time with the PC version myself since I use Mac's ;-) I'm sure one of the other guys will confirm if they're reading.

  • spadge #43 2 years ago

    No current Superfrog plans, sorry. We get asked it often.

  • bad09 #44 2 years ago

    @ spadge

    Phew! Thanks mate that is good to hear! That phrase just scares me, like I said it normally means K&M only.

    Cannot wait it looks so wicked....although I am a little sad I have to wait. :(

    / sticks out bottom lip, gives sad eyes to spadge for making us wait...and not giving us more Superfrog

  • Devin #45 2 years ago

    SOD Superfrog! How about Assassin where you have been given the job of infiltrating the vast subterranean base... oh, hold on that's already been done! Rip-Off! Chair ripped off Assassin ;)

  • spadge #46 2 years ago

    PC supports pad and K&M, confirmed.

  • el_pollo_diablo #47 2 years ago

    @ spadge

    Have you dropped one?

  • spadge #48 2 years ago

    That's some memory, remembering cheat codes from a game 18yrs on. :)

  • JonFE #49 2 years ago

    @ spadge:

    Any chance for a "by-all-3-episodes-for-less" offer?

  • spadge #50 2 years ago

    Jon, currently Microsoft can't do anything like that. It's kind of rigid I'm afraid.

  • hutchdbl #51 2 years ago

    anyone ever play Alien Breed 3D on the Amiga? always wondered how well that turned out....

  • Murton #52 2 years ago

    A bit disappointed by the wait for PS3, I hope that we actually get a finished game and not an underperforming port of the 360 code like so many developers try to palm off on us these days.

    800 mickey mouse points sounds like a great price, but is there any chance we can get a UK PSN price? These days we're seeing content priced at 800 MSP on 360 being sold on the PSN with a huge mark-up at £7.99 Surely given that Team 17 are a UK based company we won't be getting screwed, but as the article doesn't say anything on that subject the question must be asked sooner or later.
    Edited by 1 at 05/12/09 @ 11:48

  • metalmonk #53 2 years ago

    @ spadge

    when are we going to see a Team17 collection pack like what saga have done with the megadrive games?
    Edited by 1 at 05/12/09 @ 11:48

  • DKTronics #54 2 years ago

    Top-down, in 2009 = FAIL.
    Sorry, but a first-person view would have been so much better, and certainly a lot more scary and atmospheric.
    I loved the old Alien Breed games, with the exception of AB 3D which sucked (especially compared to Doom on PC), but this type of gameplay deserves to stay in the early 90s.

  • DKTronics #55 2 years ago

    Spanks, everyones allowed to comment, whether you like it or not, and thats just MY opinion.

    And if you're becoming jaded then surely its about time you moved on ?

    >> Personaly i don't think you should even be allowed to play it.

    Lets be honest, there is not a lot you can really do about it, is there, hmm ?
    Now, here, have a ball and go play in the corner.

  • Beano #56 2 years ago

    "How pathetic, you really believe MS will pay out to have a timed exclusive on an Alien Breed XBLA game? "

    No more pathetic than MS paying for an time exclusive DLC song for The Beatles: Rock Band ...

  • spadge #57 2 years ago

    We did Alien Breed in first person 14-15years ago :-)

    A HD, digital, modern edition of a game thousands enjoyed is where we're going with this. It's not particularly 'top down' either, its where Blizzard have gone with the likes of Diablo 3, I think it'll become more of a trend. I thought we'd got over all this 2d, 3d, 1st/3rd etc - it's about entertainment.

    We realise it won't be everyone's cup of tea, it's a pick up and play, high octane blast.

  • devinshockwell #58 2 years ago

    I seem to recall that Alien Breed II had a currency system where you could buy weapons and ammo? If I am correct, would this be translated into Alien Breed Evolution in any form spadge? Have to admit I like games that do this type of thing, Resident Evil 4 was the most recent game I remember that incorporated an economy system. I'd horde my grenades and kill fish (yes fish could be traded!) just to get the next best gun/upgrade in Resi4!

  • Xerx3s #59 2 years ago

    "Actually, its well documented that Microsoft support development of a game with more/better cash than Sony"

    Curious, where are these MS documents that state that they must throw the money hat at all new games?

  • electrolite #60 2 years ago

    @DKTronics

    I totally disagree. Why on Earth do we need more first-person games? Are people scared of variety these days? It looks great as it is, apart from maybe winning some kind of award for being this years 500000th FPS it would just get lost in the flood as an FPS


    Anyway, this looks great. I just hope the difficulty level is more Alien Breed 1 than 2 or Tower Assault....

  • FarFromSane #61 2 years ago

    I could care less that it's getting released on the xbox first.. I'm just eager to play it on my ps3

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #62 2 years ago

    Come back from holiday to find this very nice surprise - ABE out very very soon and cheaper than I thought! Well done Spadge and the guys. This one's going on my Christmas XBLA wish-list alongside Perfect Dark (and Lumines for the wife).

    Oh, and if we're quoting old Amiga Spadge references - the "Spadge on RAM expansions" one from Assassin is the best.