2017’s first-person shooter LawBreakers launched to positive reviews, but ultimately failed to find a dedicated audience and was shut down in 2018. Recently, director and gaming industry icon Cliff Bleszinski hinted that more could be coming for the game.
LawBreakers was “curb stomped by Blizzard”
Speaking to ComingSoon, Bleszinski was asked if he could mention anything about the game’s possible comeback. Bleszinski said that he appreciates the support that the game got when it launched, and said that the title got “curb stomped by Blizzard,” and just fell victim to the hero shooter genre, which was booming at the time.
“At the end of the day, we just got curb stomped by Blizzard,” Bleszinski said. “The hero shooter genre was flooded at the time. The marketing for it … when it was on, Nexon did a great job. When it was off, it was off. My polarizing personality didn’t necessarily help with it. My friend has his own studio and he’s considering doing a revival, but Nexon’s being really, really weird about the rights and everything. I mean, they spent $40 million on it, which is a lot of money. But for a AAA video game, it’s really not that much.”
Despite positive reception from both media and audiences, LawBreakers didn’t make enough money to continue going forward, and its servers were shut off in 2018. Bleszinski went on to say that it broke his heart to see the numbers for the game decline, and that the reaction to the game failing is what spurred him to become more defiant on social media.
“Call of Duty probably costs $200 billion to make these days, and then don’t get into the marketing costs. When that studio failed and LawBreakers … we were watching the numbers steadily decline, it broke my heart, because my Australian Shepherd back there couldn’t walk anymore and he was declining. A lot of the internet thought it was just hilarious that cocky game designer guy’s studio is failing. And it’s like, ‘Dude, I tried. At the end of the day, I woke up and I made something, you know?’ And that’s when I get defiant on the internet. It’s far easier to criticize than create. Sometimes when people criticize me, I’m like, “What the hell have you ever done in your life?
“I had an 80 person studio that I owned. The people who support me, like my community — 90% of them are absolutely wonderful. That’s why I engage on Twitter — it’ll always be Twitter to me. Troll culture has gotten exponentially worse. I’m proud of what we did, and I always will be. I didn’t take a salary for two years when the studio was open and just worked my butt off on it. The team’s great. I’m still friends and in touch with many of them. Making video games is hard. That’s why I’m happy to consult right now.”
