How ‘Alien: Rogue Incursion’ VR Game Is Building Out New Xenomorph Lore Without Screwing Up ‘Romulus’ Film Franchise or New TV Series Plans

Jennifer Maas
·4-min read

“Alien: Rogue Incursion,” the first “Alien” video game to be built from the ground up as VR game, will launch Dec. 19. And with that release will come an all new story set between the original 1979 “Alien” movie and its 1986 sequel “Aliens” — two movies that are just the tip of the iceberg that is the “Alien” franchise.

Writer Alex White, who has penned a few “Alien” novels, notably ones that named the Xenomorphs, was brought in as “one of the many voices of canon,” in developing the storyline for the Survios-developed “Rogue Incursion,” which comes out four months after the Aug. 16 release of 20th Century Studios movie “Alien: Romulus.”

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“What’s great is that we work with Disney and 20th Century pretty closely,” White said. “They do a great job of air traffic control and stopping us from stepping on somebody else’s toes — but they don’t tell you things. So I was in the theater when I found out that my stuff was in the new movie ‘Romulus.’ Which is really fine and fun and made for a really surreal moment, honestly.”

They added: “But that’s how that relationship ends up working for us, they really want to know that we have our lore sewn up, that we know our stuff. We’re not going to send them something bad. And at the same time, if they’re somewhere where they’re like, ‘We really don’t want you to say this,’ or occasionally they’ll say, ‘We really wish you could link to this,’ then we work to accommodate that. Not at the expense of the story, but we do work to accommodate that.”

And that lockstep mentality is important when Disney and 20th Century are continuing to expand the “Alien” franchise across film and TV with the future plans for “Romulus” movies and an “Alien: Earth” TV series from Noah Hawley headed to FX on Hulu.

“They will set up meetings with us where we got onto a call with some franchise folks, and they disclosed to us the overall structure of ‘Romulus,'” Survios chief product officer TQ Jefferson said. “And that helps us to be firm about our own guardrails and this is how we’re being mindful of what what you’re doing. The thing that’s really great about the relationship is the folks that control and make the calls around the franchise are are eager for partners to add things to the universe, because it’s just more things to play with for everyone.”

“Rogue Incursion” lead character Zula, who has a spinal injury that affects how you play the character in the VR format of the game, was “part of the initial concept” when the game was pitched, per Jefferson.

“The reason why is that we wanted a character that had some history in the timeline, where we are between the first and second film,” he said. “We wanted someone that is a trained colonial marine and has encountered Xenomorphs before. We wanted a badass woman of color and she knows exactly what genre she’s in. She knows she is in for an action-horror-survival adventure.”

Once that main character was locked in White says a “significant amount of character development” was completed, on top of the pre-existing comics that introduce Zula, some of which are “a bit older and more esoteric” or even out of print.

“It gives us a chance to start with a character that people are somewhat familiar with and really love, but mostly we’re introducing her to a much broader audience,” White said. “This is somebody who is unstoppable, but she’s confronted with the ultimate sort of grief and sacrifice. The question is, at what point do you buckle? And there are all kinds of interesting moments that revolve around that.”

“Alien: Rogue Incursion” will be available across PS VR2, Meta Quest 3 and Steam VR at launch, retailing at $39.99 for the standard edition and $49.99 for the deluxe.

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