Cliff Bleszinski’s studio stops development LawBreakers

Less than a year after its release, Boss Key Productions ceases development of online shooter LawBreakers. The studio will focus on the development of a new game, although it is not yet known what kind of project it is.

Boss Key Productions announces in an online statement on its website that it will stop developing LawBreakers, the online shooter it released in August 2017. The game didn’t turn out to be the success it was hoping for. The studio reports that insufficient funds have been raised to further develop the game.

The developer says it would be obvious to make the game playable for free, but that would require rebuilding the game and that would cost too much money and time. Boss Key says it will spend its available funds on developing a new game. Work is already underway on that new project, although the studio does not want to say anything about the content yet.

Boss Key Productions was founded in 2014 by Cliff Bleszinski, after he left Epic Games, the company for which he developed Gears of War, in 2012. Bleszinski started Boss Key together with Arjan Brussee, who left Guerrilla Games in 2012. The two developers wanted to use LawBreakers to capitalize on the popularity of online team-based shooters such as Overwatch.

Bleszinski and Brussee wanted to make LawBreakers a shooter that focused less on the different roles within a team and instead did more justice to the skills of the players. However, the game failed to match Overwatch’s popularity. Brussee has since left Boss Key and has joined Bleszinski’s old employer: Epic Games.