One of the biggest acquisitions of the auction was Sega’s purchase of Relic Entertainment. Relic is a well-known developer of real-time strategy games such as the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series and Company of Heroes.

Now, one of Relic’s first RTS games has been sold off by what’s left of THQ. Homeworld, considered a classic by RTS gaming fans has, been sold to Gearbox. The series uses three-dimensional battlegrounds where ships face off in outer space.

Gearbox has stated that it intends to port Homeworld and Homeworld 2 for “today’s leading digital platforms,” which implies that the classic games could soon be coming to Steam (or possibly iOS and Android devices).

The Gearbox announcement, in full:

Gearbox Software has prevailed as the highest bidder in the acquisition of the Homeworld franchise from THQ. Brian Martel, Gearbox Software’s Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic’s brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition.

Brian intends as first priority to direct Gearbox’s interest to preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today’s leading digital platforms.

Please visit the Gearbox Software Forums to share with us and Brian what you think should be done with Homeworld moving forward. And, please try to get our attention if you have capability and interest to join the effort in developing or enabling Homeworld’s future.

Gearbox is the developer that found success last year with Borderlands 2. It is also the developer that found failure this year with Aliens: Colonial Marines. Hopefully Gearbox will treat the Homeworld IP with the care and attention it deserves.

Sega and Disney announced today that they’re remaking Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Unlike Ducktales, which is getting a hand-drawn 2D remake, Castle of Illusion will get a full 3D makeover as it moves to a 2.5D platformer.

For those too young to remember early Disney games, Castle of Illusion was one of the very best Disney platformers of the early 90s. It was released exclusively on the Sega Genesis and is still fondly remembered to this day as one of the best, if not the best, Mickey Mouse game ever released. In fact, the only good parts of Disney’s Epic Mickey were the 2D platforming sections that were reminiscent of Castle of Illusion.

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse will release this summer on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Sega announced today that it’s bringing high quality 3D surround sound to its classic games through the use of goat processing. With goat processing, Sonic the Hedgehog and other classics will sound like completely new games.

In all seriousness, it’s another April Fools’ Day joke that only was able to elicit a chuckle out of me. Your personal mileage, however, will vary, especially if you have yet to tire of goats yelling like humans.

No, it’s not a new console, but Sega is releasing a number of notebook PCs with interchangeable covers inspired by the company’s past. There are covers for the Sega Mega Driver (Genesis), Saturn, Dreamcast and just a regular blue Sega cover.

The notebook PCs are only being made available in Japan for now. There will also be four models with varying specs ranging from decent to really good. The premium PC will retail for 194,250 yen, or $2,094 USD. For that price, you’ll get the 64-bit version of Windows 8, an Intel Core i7, 120 GB SSD, 8 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce GT650M GPU.

The computers will also ship with custom Sega themes and system sound effects. Fans have probably already made a collection of retro Sega system sounds, but hey, these are official.

Check out all the skins below:

I’m saddened by the lack of a Master System skin. The red/black color scheme would look awesome on a notebook PC.

[h/t: Eurogamer]

In that context it’s understandable that Alien and shooter fans alike may be wary of how the game will play. The latest trailer for the game, released today by Gearbox, attempts to split the difference. To do this, heavy action scenes similar to those in the “Kick Ass” trailer are set to some low-key instrumental music and given a few Zack Snyder-style slow-mo sequences. It’s reminiscent of the old Gears of War “Mad World” trailer, but with explosions and face-huggers.

Whatever Aliens: Colonial Marines actually turns out to be, we’ll all find out next week when the game is released on February 12.

Luckily for Aliens fans, there is always another game just around the corner, which means another opportunity for a new developer to get things right. Next week, Gearbox will release Aliens: Colonial Marines and show the world what it thinks an Aliens multiplayer mode should look like.

A new multiplayer trailer for the game shows that at least some thought has gone into the experience. Colonial Marines will have access to a plethora of customizable weapons and explosives. Xenomorphs, on the other hand, will have 3 different classes to choose from: “soldier,” “lurker,” or “spitter.” Each class has customizable attacks, such as camouflage, disorienting smoke, or acid spit. The trailer even shows off a special class called the “boiler,” which can self-destruct its own head to rain acid onto its opponents.

In what’s called the “Kick Ass Trailer,” Sega shows off the more action packed sequences of Aliens: Colonial Marines while a gruff general narrates the events with stereotypical space marine pomp. There’s also a heavy dose of dubstep, because why not? It’s a marked departure from past trailers that highlighted the overwhelming odds the marines faced at the hands of the galaxy’s most effective killers. That being said, these marines are pretty kick ass.

It should be obvious now that Aliens: Colonial Marines will be taking more after Aliens instead of Alien. Alien fans can only hope that Gearbox can nail the fear aspect of the Alien franchise alongside the bombastic action sequences the franchise has become more know for. Xenomorphs terrified me for the majority of my childhood and I would love to get that feeling back in a game. The original Aliens vs. Predator was able to do this by making the space marines woefully underpowered, but it seems that these marines are more than ready to take on the challenge of killing an entire planet’s worth of Xenomorphs.

Aliens: Colonial Marines will launch on February 12 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The Wii U version does not have a release date yet.

The letter is fairly sad, and the latter half is highly personal and flattering toward the people who worked at THQ. The main point of the memo, however, is to inform THQ employees of whether or not they still have a job. Overall, the outcome of the bidding could have been worse, though some beloved game franchises have ended up in odd places.

Fans of the Company of Heroes series can breathe a sigh of relief, as Relic Entertainment appears to be going to Sega. With Company of Heroes 2 so far along in its development, it’s almost certain that Sega will be able to get the strategy game into shape for a release sometime this year.

Fans of the Darksiders series have not been as lucky. Vigil Games, the developer of Darksiders and Darksiders II has not been sold, and remains a part of the THQ bankruptcy case. This could very well mean that the studio will be closing.

Developer Crytek has agreed to purchase the Homefront series, something that should excite shooter fans, and Take 2 is looking to buy Evolve, a game about which nothing is known.

One of the more odd sales is of the studio Volition and the Metro series to Koch Media. Volition is the developer of perhaps the hottest property THQ had to sell, the Saints Row series. Though Koch’s subsidiary Deep Silver is a relatively small niche publisher, it has recently been trying to break out with the Dead Island games.

Ubisoft was also a part of the bidding, and has nabbed THQ’s Montreal studio and the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth RPG. This is pretty great news for those employees and South Park fans alike. The Montreal employees will likely be folded into Ubisoft’s Montreal studio in some way, and the publisher is unlikely to let a hyped game like The Stick of Truth fall through the cracks.

Unfortunately, the employees of THQ properties that were not part of the sale are being laid off. From the memo:

If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that your position will end. A small number of our headquarters staff will continue to be employed by THQ beyond January 25 to assist with the transition. THQ has sufficient resources to pay these employees for work going forward, and we will be contacting these employees immediately to ensure their continued employment during this transition period. We are requesting the ability to offer certain severance pay to minimize disruption for employees of non-included entities as they determine the next steps in their careers.

A sad day for the gaming industry, which has seen so many sad days of layoffs in the past year. Though the THQ logo has now been relegated to nostalgia status, a few of the publisher’s coveted titles, at least, seem to have found a decent home.

The Cave will be released in one week, on January 22 in the U.S. and January 23 in Europe. The game will cost $15 through the PlayStation Network or for PC, or 1200 Microsoft Points through Xbox LIVE. The title will also be ported to the Wii U, and a release date for that version will be announced “soon.”

The Cave is a 2-D platforming adventure game where players take on the role of three of seven different characters – The Hillbilly, The Scientist, The Monk, The Twins, The Knight, The Adventurer, and The Time Traveler. The chosen characters will explore a gigantic cave system using exploration, puzzle-solving, and teamwork.

The creator of The Cave is Ron Gilbert, creator of classic titles such as Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. The game’s developer, Double Fine, was responsible for the cult-classic Psychonauts. With an ancestry of that sort, expectations for The Cave‘s gameplay and humor couldn’t be higher.

The trailer for the game seen below is a combination of two separate character trailers that were released last month.

It appears, at least, that Gearbox has captured the look and feel of Aliens. Also, the story in the game’s campaign is a direct tie-in with the first three Alien movies. Whether or not it has managed to also provide that constant “I’m being hunted” sense of dread and despair is another question.

Gearbox is the same developer who brought the gaming world Borderlands 2 – one of 2012′s best shooters – so it’s worth it to keep an eye on Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game is currently scheduled for a February 12 launch in the U.S.