Cliff Bleszinski swears off making videogames forever

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The Boss Key boss said emphatically that he will never make another game.

Cliff Bleszinski earned fame during his time at Epic on games including Unreal, Gears of War, and, let us never forget, Jazz Jackrabbit. After spending 20 years with the company, he left in 2012 but returned to making games in 2014 with the arena shooter LawBreakers. 

It was good, which unfortunately wasn't enough to make it a success, and after a last-ditch effort to catch the battle royale train in a game called Radical Heights sputtered out, Bleszinski closed his Boss Key Productions studio earlier this year. 

It's hard to keep a good man down, especially one as obviously invested in the games industry as Bleszinski, and I said in May that I had no doubt that he'd return to the business one day. Yesterday, however, Bleszinski proved me wrong.

The tweet came in response to a "fan" who is apparently unhappy about not getting a refund on LawBreakers. Unsurprisingly, the exchange led to more heat on Twitter, some of it fueled by a back-and-forth between Bleszinski and LawBreakers senior animator Zach Lowery that Bleszinski later described as just "ribbing."

I still suspect that Bleszinski could make another game someday, and he's not turning his back on the industry entirely, saying in another tweet that he "will never, ever stop being an advocate for developers." But it's clear that he's in no hurry to bounce back from Boss Key, and under the circumstances I'd say it's hard to blame him.

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.