Cliffy B | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Tue, 25 Apr 2023 10:50:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Cliffy B | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Cliff Bleszinski wants Nexon to bring LawBreakers back https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/cliff-bleszinski-wants-nexon-to-bring-lawbreakers-back/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/cliff-bleszinski-wants-nexon-to-bring-lawbreakers-back/#respond Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:15:13 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=612619 Cliff Bleszinski left the games industry behind a few years ago, after having to shut down his studio, Boss Key Productions and its first major game, LawBreakers. LawBreakers has been delisted from Steam for years and is rarely talked about these days, However, Cliffy B recently learned that Nexon now owns the IP, and he …

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Cliff Bleszinski left the games industry behind a few years ago, after having to shut down his studio, Boss Key Productions and its first major game, LawBreakers. LawBreakers has been delisted from Steam for years and is rarely talked about these days, However, Cliffy B recently learned that Nexon now owns the IP, and he is hoping to convince them to bring it back. 

LawBreakers came out in 2017, just one year after Overwatch, which was at the peak of its popularity at the time. The game was billed as a more serious, competitive and skill-based hero shooter. However, it failed to attract much of a player base, with just 7.5K peak concurrent players during its launch month.

According to Cliff Bleszinski, Nexon now owns the rights to the game, and he is hoping that the publisher will revive the game. It has also been revealed recently that Boss Key's other game, Radical Heights, is now owned by Squanch Games, the studio most recently known for High On Life. Radical Heights was a last-ditch effort to save Boss Key Productions, delivering Battle Royale gameplay in keeping with industry trends at that time.

Whether or not LawBreakers will return still remains to be seen. Given that the game hasn't really achieved cult classic status, Nexon might not see much business sense in investing in the IP.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Do you think LawBreakers would fare better on the market today compared to 2017? 

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Cliffy B’s launches ‘Boss Key’ website, promises updates soon https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/cliffy-b-launches-boss-key-website-promises-updates-soon/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/cliffy-b-launches-boss-key-website-promises-updates-soon/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2014 09:15:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=201487 Cliff Blezinski, one of the longest running Epic Games employees that helped craft such games as Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, left the developer back in 2012, entering a self imposed retirement so he could have a bit of a break from the industry. Recently though he's shown a bit of …

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Cliff Blezinski, one of the longest running Epic Games employees that helped craft such games as Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, left the developer back in 2012, entering a self imposed retirement so he could have a bit of a break from the industry. Recently though he's shown a bit of a resurgence, announcing that he would be making a triumphant return and that the game he would be working on would be revealed in a few days time. While we don't know what it is yet, we know what his new development studio is called: Boss Key Productions.

The new website for the studio has just gone live, featuring an email subscriber list should you want to get up to thee minute news on its developments.

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This logo is the same one we saw on Blezinski's shirt in his photo reveal

Blezinski actually registered the name of the company back in April and tweeted “Soon,” from its account at the end of June, but the only hint we have at what his new game will be about is the header image for the company's twitter account. It shows a URL address bar with “http//(project_bluestreak” in it.

Unfortunately though even that isn't ‘news,' as he talked about the title way back in 2012 soon after his initial retirement announcement.

KitGuru Says: We should know more about Blezinski's new game next Tuesday. Until then, keep your eyes peeled. 

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Cliff Blezinski announces end to retirement https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/cliff-blezinski-announces-end-to-retirement/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/cliff-blezinski-announces-end-to-retirement/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2014 07:36:56 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=200937 Cliffy B, Cliff Blezinski, or simply that guy the made some of the biggest shooter franchises ever, has announced that his self-imposed retirement has come to an end. The news was posted on his official twitter account, stating that he was ready to make games again. It's not a comeback though, remember that: “I'm officially …

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Cliffy B, Cliff Blezinski, or simply that guy the made some of the biggest shooter franchises ever, has announced that his self-imposed retirement has come to an end. The news was posted on his official twitter account, stating that he was ready to make games again.

It's not a comeback though, remember that:

“I'm officially coming out of retirement to make video games again. Stay tuned here for details in the next 7 days! #DontCallItAComeback,” he said.

Presumably the game in question will be the one he's hinted at before with his concept art releases, which he said last year would be an arena shooter, but his ongoing messages seem to suggest it could be something quite different.

tweet

“It's going to be a blast to finally tell the story of what brought me back,” he said in a follow up message.

Not much has been heard of Blezinski since he exited the industry back in 2012, amid claims that he needed a break after working at Epic games for over 20 years. He's maintained a blog and his social media accounts, but they've been fairly innocuous. He did make an empassioned plea to Phil Fish not to retire in the wake of hateful comments from fans and journalists and has tweeted concept art of an unknown game that he supposedly was working on, but it's all been hush-hush until now.

In the next week or so we should know what Cliffy B will be working on in the future. And it's not a Jazz Jackrabbit sequel, Epic owns those rights.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: What kind of game do you think Blezinski will be working on? It would be interesting if he went back to his point and click routes, but do you think he'll be too tempted to make a shooter? 

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Cliffy B offers his take on the Xbone controversy https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/console-desktop-pc/jon-martindale/cliffy-b-offers-his-take-on-the-xbone-controversy/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/console-desktop-pc/jon-martindale/cliffy-b-offers-his-take-on-the-xbone-controversy/#respond Fri, 21 Jun 2013 14:19:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=139431 Cliff Bleszinski, or Cliffy B as he's more commonly known, used to run the show over at Epic when it came to Gears of War development. Now he's off doing other things but that doesn't mean people haven't been asking him what he thinks of the whole Xbox One debacle. Expanding on a few tweets he …

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Cliff Bleszinski, or Cliffy B as he's more commonly known, used to run the show over at Epic when it came to Gears of War development. Now he's off doing other things but that doesn't mean people haven't been asking him what he thinks of the whole Xbox One debacle. Expanding on a few tweets he made on his blog, he explained that ultimately it doesn't matter too much, because PC and mobile are leading the way.

Cliffy often gets a bad rep for ragging on used sales and piracy crippling sales of games and he does, quite hard at times, but you can see why when he brings up a strategy employed by Gamestop that had them handing around leaflets at the Gears 3 launch party that said “Trade in this game by November 6th and get more than you normally would on your trade in!”

Understandably, when you've put effort into making a game have plenty of replay value, this sort of thing is demoralising.

cliffyb
Here's Cliffy, looking surprisingly like a shaved Brad Muir

However, he doesn't take the usual tack of many a developer and suggest that that means devs and publishers have to circle the wagons and deny features to consumers just because they help retailers turn a profit, he discussed ways that digital could be introduced to give consumers new and better options.

“I’ve said before if I worked at Microsoft I would not only POSITIVELY motivate users to go digital but also offer their own trading system in which they give you MORE money for your game than Gamestop and sell the used games for LESS than Gamestop. Include a Netflix style mailing system and move along your merry way by engaging the customer as opposed to treating them like criminals.”

He also took a swing at the 24 hour connection/activation thing Microsoft tried to push, saying it was dumb. While he did note that Steam does try and get you to be online:  “It doesn’t FORCE you to be online. The ecosystem of Steam is so brilliant, from the community, to the summer sales, to the indie games, that you WANT to get online.”

Ultimately, he said: “My money is on the PC, mobile and tablets for the near future. I wandered around E3 looking at (too many) fantastic games shaking my head and worrying about how many are going to be deemed a failure due to the fact that yes, it may have sold 4 million copies, but it cost too much to make and market, so it was a wash.”

While he didn't name names, games like Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution were big failures despite selling millions of copies.

KitGuru Says: Some interesting points from the man. Certainly less favourable than his “if you didn't like Gears 3 multiplayer than just play Gears 2,” approach, which he himself says was a (regretful) middle finger to the consumer. 

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