Few games have ever risen to the level of cult-classic in the same way as Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, a survival horror game based on the beloved sci-fi film franchise, that plays like a terrifying version of "cat and mouse." Perhaps the strangest thing about the success of Alien: Isolation is not that Sega didn't greenlight a sequel but that the entire franchise has been on a lengthy hiatus ever since. To date, the only game to release since Alien: Isolation was a Five Nights at Freddy's-esque mobile title called Alien: Blackout, and the upcoming Aliens: Fireteam is a cooperative PvE shooter that's much more akin to Back 4 Blood.
There is a rather detailed timeline of events following the development of Alien: Isolation 2 and why the highly-requested sequel never came to fruition. From Sega's unrealistically high sales expectations, to Disney's acquisition of Fox including the Alien and Predator franchises, around every corner was a new hurdle to overcome. That being said, the popularity of the survival horror genre has reached a new peak since 2014 thanks to games like Resident Evil Village. After the success of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Predator: Hunting Grounds to a lesser degree, could Disney commission a sequel to Alien: Isolation?
Licensing Rights for the Alien Games
The original Alien: Isolation was developed by Creative Assembly, the studio behind the popular turn-based strategy series Total War, and published by Sega. In January 2017, 20th Century Fox created a new division known as FoxNext to oversee its virtual reality products, as well as augmented reality, theme parks, and video games. Through various acquisitions, FoxNext was made up of four main development teams: FoxNext Games, Aftershock, Cold Iron Studios, and Fogbank Entertainment; releasing a few games between 2017-2019 including Marvel Strike Force, Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow, The X-Files: Deep State, Storyscape, and Alien: Blackout.
On March 20, 2019, 21st Century Fox was officially acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Disney gained complete ownership of 20th Century Fox's film and television studios, a majority stake in National Geographic, a minor stake in streaming site Hulu, and as mentioned, FoxNext Games. After closing Disney Interactive Studios in 2016, the entertainment conglomerate had no plans to return to in-house video game development.
Disney went on to sell FoxNext Games (and its subsidiaries) to mobile publisher Scopely in early 2020, resulting in the cancellation of any games that were in development at the time. In short, the video game division of FoxNext was in charge of video games based on the Alien franchise, but when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, ownership of the intellectual property and video game rights went to Disney with the franchise, and the video game division and studios were sold.
Disney's Approach to Making Video Games
In 1988, The Walt Disney Company founded Disney Interactive Studios (Walt Disney Computer Software), a video game division of the company that developed and published many beloved games based on its IP including; Disney Infinity, Aladdin, The Lion King, Epic Mickey, and Kingdom Hearts. After the cancellation of Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive Studios was permanently closed and Disney transitioned to licensing out its IP to third-party developers and publishers, most famously seen in the EA Star Wars licensing deal that ended with just two Star War: Battlefront games, and 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
In recent years, Disney has formed multiple new divisions that are in charge of licensing video games based on different brands in the business. When it comes to video games based on Marvel Comics, Marvel Games handles licensing for games based on its IP on behalf of Disney. In particular, Marvel Games works with third-party publishers like Sony for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, or Nintendo for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order.
For Star Wars or Indiana Jones, Disney reformed Lucasfilm Games in January and are currently working with Machine Games (Wolfenstein: The New Order) for an Indiana Jones games with Bethesda publishing, and Massive Entertainment (The Division 2) for an open-world Star Wars game with Ubisoft publishing. And in this case, the very same can be said about the Alien franchise or any other IP that was obtained through the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which will now be handled by 20th Century Games including the upcoming Aliens: Fireteam from Cold Iron Studios.
Could Disney Commission A Next-Gen Alien: Isolation Sequel?
In recent months, Disney has shown significant interest in the Alien franchise; putting the entire Alien film series on Disney Plus, greenlighting a sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, partnering with Epic Games for a crossover with Fortnite featuring Ellen Ripley and the Xenomorph, and launching a brand new Alien comic series at Marvel Comics. It appears to have a lot of interest in the franchise, so why not develop a sequel to one of its best video games?
Unfortunately, very little is known about the new 20th Century Games division so it's unclear exactly how involved the team is or how many games are currently in the works. One thing that is clear: Disney owns the right to the Alien franchise and it absolutely can commission a sequel to Alien: Isolation, so hopefully it realizes the demand and opportunity is absolutely there.
Alien: Isolation is available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.