Cliff Bleszinski is 'working on some new stuff'

News
By published

The Gears of War creator teased a new project on Twitter, but said it’s not necessarily a new videogame.

Cliff Bleszinski
(Image credit: Cliff Bleszinski (via LinkedIn))

Two years after leaving Epic Games in 2012, Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski leapt back into the development business with the fast-paced arena shooter LawBreakers. We liked it an awful lot, describing it as "an uncompromising game that doesn't make apologies for its high skill ceiling" in our 84% review, but in spite of that, and concerted efforts to save it, it failed to catch on. In May 2018, Bleszinski closed his Boss Key Productions studio, and four months later LawBreakers went offline for good.

Understandably, Bleszinski took the game's failure hard, promising in all-caps that he was done with making games forever. Forever! But forever is a long time, and a couple years after that, in October 202, he admitted that he was starting to feel the itch again. It's apparently an itch he's decided to scratch.

(Image credit: Cliff Bleszinski (via Twitter))

"Yes, for the record, I'm working on some new stuff, and you should know every damned day it's agonizing to not talk about it," Blesinzski tweeted. "Deal with it. Love y'all."

Intriguingly, he suggested several hours later that "it might not necessarily be a videogame."

In the wake of that tweet, however, he implied that he's already chatted about the project with Vlambeer co-founder and industry consultant Rami Ismail, which I think suggests some tangential connection to videogames at the very least. 

Gears of War fans holding onto faint hopes that Bleszinski will return to the series seem doomed to disappointment, however: When a follower asked if the new project involves any chainsaws, a reference to Gears' Lancer assault rifle, he replied, "None."

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.