Gears of War creator reacts to Palworld's success by revealing he pitched a "medieval Pokemon with baby dragons" game years ago

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Cliff Bleszinski was apparently ahead of the curve

Palworld
(Image credit: Pocketpair)

Gears of War's creator has commented on the success of Palworld, revealing that he once pitched his own Pokemon-like at Epic Games "many years ago." 

Cliff Bleszinski, who is primarily known for his work on the Gears of War series, has taken to Twitter to share an interesting insight into his career and touch on the most recent Pokemon-like survival game to take the world by storm. "Palworld's success kinda validates my pitch that was turned down at Epic many years ago," the developer shares, before revealing it was a "medieval Pokemon" style game with baby dragons.

Understandably, fans of CliffyB had a lot of questions about this mysterious canned project. When asked how many pitches he's had turned down, Bleszinski replied: "Well the dragon game was rejected at all the major publishers. And there was another project I started at Epic that was canceled about a girl who could control the world at a molecular level - open world." This just shows how many games don't make it past the pitching stage. 

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Another fan asked the developer what Epic's reasoning was behind turning the game down, to which he said: "It just...never went anywhere," and revealed: "I wanted to do it on mobile first." Sadly, it's unlikely that Bleszinski will revisit the idea, as he's revealed: "Epic owns the overall idea." Everyone involved is probably kicking themselves now, as Palworld is the second-ever Steam game to hit 2 million concurrent players - less than 10 days after its release.

This isn't the only thing the Gears of War veteran had to share recently. Over the weekend, CliffyB took to Twitter once again to share a statement on the possibility of returning to the series. "We've been over this a million times," the developer writes. "I'm down to consult. Give my two cents. [...] MS/Coalition haven't hit me up. OK. It is what it is." Bleszinski continues: "If they were smart, they'd enlist me."

Take a look at our Palworld type chart and element weaknesses guide if you're still trying to get to grips with the survival game. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.