I mean, sure it's not cool to (allegedly) steal money from Sega but at least they (allegedly) put the money into a great game.
This has been a popular personal defense on the subject for years.
What if you personally funded someone and they chose to funnel it into another project, have the audacity to say they needed more money to complete your project, you agree thinking you can still trust them, they then pay someone else to do the work for them, then finish a better personal project for themselves in the meantime? I don't know about you, but i'd be pissed.
The second defense I always hear on this matter is "Your just a huge fan of the IP and was just disappointed".
And to this, I say, I never played Colonial Marines. Nor any Gearbox game or any game in the Aliens IP. This was just a scandal I came across, read the headlines, didn't think much of and moved on. Until one year a voice actor at Youmacon brought over the Vice President of Gearbox Business Division (the guy who voices Claptrap). And he asked the audience in the panel who bought a used copy of Colonial Marines. Few hands went up. Then he went off on a tangent swearing off those people in the panel and how they were destroying the industry, this went on to an uncomfortable level.
That's what made me curious and lead me to actually read up on the scandal in its entirety and became informed.
So does this decision effect me? No. But does Randy and his company deserve criticism and any sort of karma given to them? Definitely. But we shouldn't downplay what happen just because we got a very well made game that a lot of people enjoyed out of it.
The dude funneled and stole money from Sega, now he had 3 million dollars stolen from him. That's poetic, but the accountant will probably be caught but, hey, two wrongs don't make a right. But it's sure as hell entertaining to watch.
Edit: My sympathies does go out to any of his employees who had no action in any scandal, and will be unfairly affected by this.