Cliff Bleszinski, gaming’s original “DudeBro” and the creator of the Gears of War franchise, has announced (via Twitter) that he is stepping away from game development to spend more time with his family.
The legendary developer got his start in the early 90s at Epic Games, and he would use his time at the company to produce a variety of hits, including Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, and Unreal Tournament. “CliffyB” would eventually take the reins to Gears of War, and he served as Lead Designer on the first three games in the franchise before leaving Epic in 2012.
Bleszinski would return as the face of Boss Key Productions in 2014. His team took a stab at the “Hero Shooter” genre in 2017 with LawBreakers, and they followed it up with Radical Heights, a free-to-play “Battle Royale” game, earlier this year. Both games “failed to gain traction” with players, and this likely lead to Bleszinski’s current sabbatical from the industry.
According to his statement, Bleszinski hopes to “someday” return to game development, but Boss Key Productions as an entity is “effectively no more”:
A statement: pic.twitter.com/LwJD54bCwL
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 14, 2018
In a final message to his fans, Bleszinski thanked them for all their support over the years and said that the servers for Radical Heights will remain available for the near future.
