In a tweet posted earlier today, self-proclaimed “washed up dudebro” game developer Cliff Bleszinski shared that he wasn’t ever planning on making another video game. This comes in response to a Twitter account who decided to call out Cliffy B in his first tweet.
Stating that his LawBreakers purchase “waisted” [sic] his money, Twitter user HeitzJoshua demanded a refund. Cliff clarified that he himself didn’t take money for two years during the game’s development before stating that he was out of the industry.
https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/1063145769321013249
Earlier this year, Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Studios folded. The company released competitive arena first-person shooter LawBreakers and battle royale also-ran Radical Heights during its brief life. Neither game is currently playable, as both were online-only titles that required server upkeep. Despite not finding an audience, LawBreakers reviewed well, earning a 4/5 from our reviewer. Constant comparisons to Overwatch did the game no favors though. Eventually, player disinterest led to a free-to-play release and an eventual server shutdown.
Raical Heights was stated to be the last gambit for Boss Key. The game was a battle royale that released into a world already obsessed with Fortnite. It found just a week of success before player counts began to drop, mirror many other competitors in the genre. During the game’s brief life, Cliff tweeted that former employer Epic Games was trying to “steal staff” from his company, leading to a minor controversy.
Before all this, Cliff Bleszinski was the wunderkind of Epic Games. He worked on Unreal Tournament and became a leading force behind Gears of War. Cliff is currently working on an autobiography to tell his side of the story. Whatever the outcome, it is a shame that one of the leading forces behind arena FPS in the ’90s has been turned off by the industry. Here’s hoping that Cliffy B finds peace in whatever he ends up doing next.
