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Cliff Bleszinski is shutting down Boss Key Productions to focus on his family
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.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged LawBreakers, Radical Heights
PS Store This Week: Hellblade, Telltale’s Batman The Enemy Within, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, more
Big-budget retail releases may have dried up for the Summer, but there’s a ton of new titles to download this week on the PlayStation Store…
First up is Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, an “Indie AAA” from Ninja Theory. The team behind DMC: Devil May Cry and Heavenly Sword is back with a new third-action game for the PS4 about “a warrior’s brutal journey into myth and madness.” The developer worked alongside neuroscientists to accurately portray the mental state of the protagonist and added a unique bit of quasi-permadeath to Hellblade’s save system.
Also available to download this week is the first episode of Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within. The Riddler is terrorizing Gotham City in the PS4 sequel, and Batman also has to deal with an appearance by Amanda Waller and the emergence of The Joker. And speaking of return appearances, Cliff Bleszinski returns to game development with LawBreakers, a new hero shooter for the PS4.
Finally this week, a trio of side-scrolling shooters will make the PlayStation Store a retro-tastic place to shop. Capcom has compiled Mega Man 7, 8, 9, and 10 on the PS4 in the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2. Vertex Pop will also release their colorful space shooter, Graceful Explosion Machine, on the PS4. And the bizarre Sine Mora EX has been remastered for the PS4 by THQ Nordic.
You can learn more about all of these titles (and a few others) after the break. (more…)
Cliff Bleszinski’s LawBreakers is also in the works for the PS4
Cliff Bleszinski has revealed (via the PlayStation Blog) that his upcoming first person shooter, LawBreakers, is also in development for the PS4.
LawBreakers is currently in the works at Bleszinski’s studio, Boss Key Productions, and it’s expected to launch for the PC and PS4 later this year. After his “retirement” from the Gears of War franchise, the developer decided to create a multiplayer shooter with a variety of characters, wide open “omni-directional” environments, and an interesting anti-gravity mechanic:
During my “retirement”, honestly, I was bored as hell. My waifu and I were ready to strangle each other. I was getting fat. Ultimately, I couldn’t ignore the creative need to make something new. During this time, I was inspired by a childhood dream about gravity being disrupted in a BIG way. I also took a Zero G flight once. That was pretty crazy. So, LawBreakers is the culmination of my dreams as a kid, my career in this industry and my lifelong passion for games. So there we have the inception (HORN SOUND) of LawBreakers. A new futuristic world where the Moon mysteriously exploded, an event known as The Shattering, that devastated Earth. Afterward society recovered, using new gravity anomalies to rebuild and advance.
Like Overwatch, Quake Champions, Battleborn, and a number of other shooters currently on the market, each character in LawBreakers will have access to a unique set of abilities and weapons:
The setting is the perfect backdrop for a super fast, omni-directional team-based FPS where we challenge players to get the hell off the ground. The floor is lava, bruh. It’s the skill-based competitive shooter made by shooter fans for shooter players that my team and I have always wanted to play. It honors the old and embraces the new. Old being the feeling of soaring through the air at mach-speed and rocket-jumping and such. The new as offering a variety of characters each with different movement abilities, multiple weapons, combos and more.
Our “healer” in LawBreakers can be an offensive powerhouse. In the hands of a skilled player, this role can simultaneously heal two teammates at once, all while lobbing grenades from high above like some flying human artillery cannon. Stuff like that is what LawBreakers is all about. Also we’ve added a few new things too, like being able to blind-fire behind you with any ranged weapon. Yep.
Finally, a brand new Cinematic Trailer, “Rise or Fall,” should give you a good idea of how combat will work in LawBreakers.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged LawBreakers
Cliff Bleszinski’s Project BlueStreak officially unveiled as LawBreakers
“It happened long before I was born. Clandestine government testing on the lunar surface caused the Moon to split, creating a massive earthquake. They called it “The Shattering” and it nearly cracked our world in two. The ground broke… oceans boiled… and gravity never went back to normal. But, we rebuilt.
Memories of the old world drifted into the past and humanity turned its gaze forward. It came back stronger than ever, and for awhile, things were good. Then came the gangs. Gravity manipulation and supplement use lead to near superhuman abilities. Cartels from around the world have unified to form the Breakers. In 2105, their empire expanded onto US soil, flooding the streets with narcotics and war. Law enforcement agencies were unified to keep the peace. Sam and I signed up on the first day. There’s no sitting on the sidelines… not anymore. You either uphold the law, or you break it.”
So begins the trailer for Cliff Bleszinski’s LawBreakers, an arena shooter that will be released for the PC in 2016. Previously known as “Project BlueStreak,” LawBreakers will be Bleszinski’s first creation since leaving Epic Games to form Boss Key Productions. Best of all, we won’t have long to wait before we can try it out.
Bleszinski and the rest of Boss Key will bring a playable demo of LawBreakers to Seattle for this weekend’s PAX Prime. More specifically, they plan to set up demo stations in an undisclosed location at the expo on Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30.
Presumably, this locale will become a bit less secret after they unveil the title’s first gameplay trailer on Friday, August 28 at 9:00 AM (Eastern Time).
Posted in News, PC
Tagged LawBreakers, PAX Prime 2015
Here’s the PAX East 2015 teaser for Boss Key’s Project BlueStreak
As promised, Cliff Bleszinski brought an early look at his next game, Project BlueStreak, to PAX East 2015 this past weekend. The former Gears of War helmer showed about a minute’s worth of footage of a work-in-progress multipayer map that includes a futuristic space station and a tranquil Japanese garden. Bleszinski, and the rest of the development team at Boss Key Productions, also confirmed that Project BlueStreak will be created using Unreal Engine 4, marking something of a homecoming for the developer.
“We considered several options regarding what technology we’d use to build Project BlueStreak. Ultimately, we found ourselves coming full circle to my friends at Epic Games and the elegant solution for rapid and quality game development that is Unreal Engine 4,” Bleszinski said. “We look forward to making a top-tier product through this partnership.”
While it’s a bit hard to tell from the teaser trailer above, Project BlueStreak will be a free-to-play arena shooter for the PC that takes place in a “recovered apocalyptic sci-fi setting.” Hopefully, Bleszinski will explain what that means soon.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged LawBreakers, PAX East 2015
Boss Key Productions will bring BlueStreak to PAX East 2015
The PAX East 2015 schedule is live and in addition to all the tournaments and concerts, we’ve learned that Cliff Bleszinski will host a panel dedicated to his upcoming game, BlueStreak. Bleszinski will be joined by other developers from his new studio, Boss Key Productions, as they delve into what it takes to open a new studio in this day and age. Boss Key has previously described BlueStreak as a free-to-play arena shooter and Bleszinski and his team will disclose a few more details at PAX East:
Turning the Key: What It Takes To Create A New FPS Franchise
Saturday (3/7): 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Go behind-the-scenes with Cliff Bleszinski and the team at Boss Key Productions to discover what it takes to create a brand new studio and game from scratch. Why did Cliff move on from a huge franchise to start something new? What are Boss Key’s development philosophies? Is there an office beer of choice? All that and more, plus an opportunity to ask questions to the team and get exclusive swag! Trust us, you don’t want to miss it.
It’s currently unknown if BlueStreak will be playable on the show floor, but you never know when it comes to Cliff Bleszinski. As always, PAX East 2015 will be held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and this year’s expo will run from March 6 through March 8.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged LawBreakers, PAX East 2015