Cliff Bleszinski shuts down Boss Key Productions, steps away from gaming

[Shawn Knight]

Renowned video game designer Cliff Bleszinski dropped a bombshell on Monday, announcing on Twitter that Boss Key Productions is “effectively no more.”

Bleszinski left Epic Games in 2012 after 20 years on the job. After taking some time away from the industry, he returned to co-found Boss Key Productions alongside Arjan Brussee. Together, the duo led development on 2017’s LawBreakers and launched Radical Heights just over a month ago.

On Twitter, Bleszinski described LawBreakers as a great game that unfortunately failed to gain traction. In a last ditch attempt, they scrambled to produce their take on the huge battle royale genre with Radical Heights. The game was well received, Bleszinski said, but conceded it was too little, too late.

Looking ahead, the designer said he is going to take some time off and reflect. Bleszinski said he needs to focus on himself and his family, adding that video games will forever be a part of who he is. He hopes to make something new again someday but for now, he said he needs to withdraw and “take this time.”

Despite the closure, Bleszinski said the servers for Radical Heights will remain online for the near future. No further timetable was provided. As of writing, the free-to-play game is still listed on Steam, as is the $14.99 Founder’s Pack DLC.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74622-cliff-bleszinski-shuts-down-boss-key-productions-steps.html

 

[Rockstarrrr]

Huge respect for Unreal series (especially the first one). Too bad he got his ego out of control and dont get me start on his "consoles are better than PC" era....

 

[Uncle Al]

Yeah, doesn't sound like he could manage a heart attack ...... what a shame .....

 

[slamscaper]

I never liked Cliffy B. He always had disdain for the PC community. He believed we were all thieves and would just pirate any games he worked on, simply because we just HAD to have them yet knew we didn't have to pay. He once said that if a user is smart enough to update their computer with the proper drivers and to tweak the systems to play his games, they're also smart enough to pirate them. That one statement alone made me hate him, but he has many other egotistical traits as well. I hope he never gets back into gaming.

 

[Evernessince]

Well that's one way to avoid taking responsibility for two terrible games in a row. It's like this guy hasn't grown up a day since he hit 18.

 

[BGrant]

Too bad he bet on this extremely annoying multiplayer arena lootbox porn fad that is going on right now.

The gaming scene is a pain in the *** nowadays.

I do like this guy though. He's obviously very talented and competent.