Is Cliff Bleszinski teasing a LawBreakers revival? Veteran dev tells fans to “stay tuned”
Boss Key ProductionsCould LawBreakers be making a surprise return five years after servers went offline for good? Former Boss Key Productions founder and gaming industry veteran Cliff Bleszinski has teased something on the horizon, advising fans to “stay tuned.”
It’s been six years since the troubled launch of LawBreakers, Gears of War creator Bleszinski’s entry into the flourishing hero shooter market. While a small audience grew attached to its frenetic action, fluid movement systems, and tight gunplay, the title simply failed to captivate the masses.
Poor sales across PC, PS4, and Xbox One led to a swift end for the otherwise critically hailed shooter. Just eight months removed from its full release and the writing for its end was on the wall.
“The fact is, LawBreakers failed to find enough of an audience to generate funds necessary to keep it sustained,” devs at Boss Key said at the time. Despite a pivot to a free-to-play model, it ultimately wasn’t enough and the game was taken offline entirely on September 14, 2018.
In weeks that followed, Boss Key itself was shuttered as subsequent Battle Royale title Radical Heights also failed to land on its feet.
Ever since, all has been relatively quiet for the LawBreakers IP and Boss Key founder Cliff Bleszinski, as he largely pivoted away from the gaming industry. Now, however, more than half a decade on from the rise and fall of LawBreakers, and it appears there could be life still in the title.
“Just got a text from my lawyer about… LawBreakers,” Cliffy B teased on April 13. “Stay tuned,” he added.
Exactly what this means, is of course a mystery for now. It could be just about anything if a legal team is involved, and with Boss Key no longer around, we almost certainly can’t expect a resurgence of the game, at least, not just yet. But if the studio’s founder is still seeing movement around the IP, perhaps something could be in the works. For that, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Boss Key ProductionsBeyond the cryptic tease for the dormant game, Bleszinski then took the opportunity to lash out the gaming community once again for essentially preying on its downfall at the time.
“It confuses the hell out of me how people were rooting for the game to fail and when it did, there’s now a ton of support for it. Gamers are weird, yo.
“Like, the team worked their asses off on it. I relocated many people from other parts of the world for it, and the internet was like ‘har har, it doesn’t have enough players.’ Meanwhile, studio craters and I have to deal with a year of crippling depression out of guilt.”
So for the time being, what this reemergence of the LawBreakers name means, is anyone’s guess. Despite the recent outpouring of support, one clearly too late to make a difference, it’s unclear if Bleszinski has any intention of switching the lights back on and bringing servers online anytime soon. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as any further details emerge though.