'Ave it

Gearbox has confirmed that the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines will scream onto PS3 on 12th February 2013 in North America. The title had previously been given a tentative autumn release, but this is the first time it’s scooped an official date.

Randy Pitchford, the gaffer at developer Gearbox, said in a statement accompanying the release date:

Our vision is for the game to be fully featured with an exciting, suspenseful, thrilling and action packed narrative campaign that can be played alone or cooperatively combined with a robust competitive game where human players can take on the roles of Colonial Marines or Xenomorphs and do battle online. The game must be authentic.

It must complement, but not re-tell the events of, the films. It must deliver an original story and fresh experience that, for those of us who grew up loving the Aliens films, builds and expands upon those events, but also stand on its own for those of us who may never have seen the movies.

Curiously, the release date only applies to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game. There’s some speculation suggesting that it might end up a timed exclusive on Wii U, which we’re sure will excite the guys over at Nintendo Life.

Meanwhile, we’ll just continue to twiddle our thumbs until 2013. There’s a new trailer below.