Cliff Bleszinski says ego played a role in LawBreakers’ failure: ‘People are loyal to the game, but they’re not necessarily loyal to the person’

LawBreakers was, by many accounts, a great game. But the 2017 shooter was a commercial failure, and developer Boss Key shut it down just a year after release. There’s been much speculation about why it stumbled, including from Boss Key co-founder and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski himself. In a new interview with 80.lv, he offered his latest theories.

For one, a desire for Boss Key to be ‘his’ studio cost him an opportunity to work with Rod Fergusson, who he worked with on Gears of War.

“I could have used Rod, but I wanted it to be my show, and that was the first step of my ego creeping in right there,” Bleszinski said, “believing that … if I built it as Cliff, people will come. I thought there was this brand loyalty from the people who knew who I was, but it turns out people are loyal to the game, but they’re not necessarily loyal to the person.”

Bleszinski went on to say that the publishing deal Boss Key secured with Nexon had the wrong priorities. That deal included Boss Key retaining the rights to its IP, but as Bleszinski recalled it, “When the deal is so good for one side, the other side isn’t as incentivized … they’re not going to make it the next big thing because they’re really not going to see that much of the profit.”

Bleszinski offered a few other causes too, calling Boss Key’s demise “death by 1,000 paper cuts.” LawBreakers’ art could have stood out more, an earlier launch on Xbox would have brought over more Gears of War fans, his struggle with alcoholism played a role, and he felt he was less involved than a lead should be, going home when others stayed late.

Despite all the turmoil, Bleszinski told 80.lv he still has a craving to make games again. “At the end of the day, I want to create characters and worlds,” he said. “I want to make stuff that people will cosplay as and get tattooed on their bodies.”