The creator of the Gears of War series, the great and terrible Cliff Bleszinski, sat down with 80.lv and spoke pretty candidly about why LawBreakers — a title critics liked back in 2017 — flopped commercially and folded quickly. He points fingers at a chain of management errors; his ego figures prominently in that chain, he admits.
Bleszinski says he wanted Boss Key Productions to be "his own show," and that stance cost him collaboration with Rod Fergusson (yes, the Gears colleague). He banked on name recognition carrying the project — a bet that didn’t pay off.
I thought there was a certain loyalty to my brand from people who knew who I was. But it turned out that gamers are loyal to the game itself, not necessarily to a specific person.
Another misstep: the deal with publisher Nexon. Boss Key kept the IP (which, at the time, seemed like a win), but that same clause may have removed Nexon’s incentive to push LawBreakers hard — e.g., a smaller profit share = less publisher hustle, so the title didn’t get the push it needed.
He describes the studio’s end more like an accumulation of small wounds than one catastrophic event — a "death by a thousand cuts" — and lists several concrete contributors:
- Weak art design: the visuals didn't scream for attention among rivals.
- Platform mistake: launching earlier on Xbox might have pulled in some of the Gears crowd.
- Lack of leadership and personal problems: Cliff admits he was dealing with alcoholism and often checked out early while the team kept grinding late.
There’s a hint of ruefulness through the interview, but he hasn’t lost the itch to make games. He finished on a note about the things that still matter to him creatively.
In the end, I want to create characters and worlds. I want to make things that people will cosplay and tattoo on their bodies," the developer concluded.