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11 years later, Gears of War mastermind Cliffy B is "still bitter about the internet finding it hilarious that my studio folded" and now "happy consulting" instead of returning to game dev
Former Gears of War boss Cliff Bleszinski is in no rush to return to game development, it seems, and after 11 years is still very much pocketing memories of his defunct studio Boss Key Productions.
Boss Key, you may remember, released two games – and had some gorgeous concepts for others – before closing down. LawBreakers was a competitive FPS released in 2017 to fairly positive reviews, while Radical Heights was a battle royale shooter released in 2018 to noticeably less positive reviews.
"11 years ago I started Boss Key," Bleszinski reflected in a July 21 tweet. "Sigh. It was amazing at first and then, well, it broke me for a good long while. Still bitter about the internet finding it hilarious that my studio folded."
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In replies to another user, Bleszinski affirmed that "I'm happy consulting at this point" rather than fully returning to gaming. It seems his thoughts have changed since 2020, when he expressed "a slight itch to scratch to maybe poke around and see about making a little game."
At the time, Bleszinski also reckoned that Boss Key "should have started with a small, indie game FIRST before trying to make the shooter we ultimately did." He also argued that "the marketing from our publisher was lackluster, and that's putting it mildly."
Boss Key legitimately had some FPS chops, but Radical Heights, in particular, felt like a victim of the trends of the games industry. The battle royale boom had come and, perhaps not gone, but certainly settled into a collective of genre-dominating giants that made it hard for new games to make any headway even when those games were excellent. And Radical Heights, to put it kindly, was less than excellent. Its now-buried Steam page has preserved its 9,788 reviews, averaging out to 62% positive.
Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
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