The developer studio behind LawBreakers and Radical Heights, Boss Key Productions is closing down. Cliff Bleszinski's attempts at another billion dollar franchise have come crashing down as he announced the closure and his own time off.
CliffyB's announcement on Twitter has him saying that he set out to make a "world class" studio four years ago. To that end, he employed "some of the best talent in the video game industry" and formed Boss Key Productions. The studio had its ups and downs but according to CliffyB, they had fun working together.
The first product of their labour was was LawBreakers, which was indeed a well made fast paced shooter, but it failed to gain traction. Reasons for this are numerous, ranging from little to no marketing, going back on Boss Key's word to release it as a free to play title, aiming at the same market already taken by Overwatch and subsequently living (or dying?) in its shadow and a problematic launch on PlayStation 4.
Bleszinski continues his statement explaining the studio's decision to leave LawBreakers behind and then focus on "the huge battle royale genre", which was already taken by two giant games this time - Fortnite and PUBG. Failing to win a portion of Overwatch's market could have hardly been an indicator that Boss Key should take on two Goliaths afterwards, but here we are.
According to Bleszinski, Radical Heights was well received but it failed to gain traction. I wonder if it had something to do with entering an over-saturated market again. CliffyB finished his statement by saying he would love to make games again, but it's not going to happen anytime soon as he will be focusing on his private life for now and reflect on Boss Key's lifespan.
Boss Key Productions
It is sad to see two games from the mind behind Unreal and Gears of War series fall apart due to poor marketing choices, but we hope we will see some CliffyB flavoured innovative and insane game in the future.
