Boss Key Productions (Maker's of lawbreaker's) Shuts Down.

[Eleccybubb]

Lawbreakers was in development before Overwatch was announced and a lot before Paladins was, hell it's not even the same genre of game beyond first person shooter. Paladins was the Overwatch follower, but it is free to play so it doesn't really matter. Lawbreakers has a shit ton of faults, but it's such a completely different game than the hero shooters that it's akin to calling a xbox a nintendo.

So Lawbreakers was in development since before 2010 then?

Overwatch uses remnants of what Titan would have been and was made by quite a lot of that team. However Overwatch development properly started in 2012/2013 with the cancellation of Titan.

Lawbreakers studio wasn't even founded until 2014. So development couldn't have started until at least then other than minor concepts. So even leaving out the Titan part you are wrong and Overwatch was in development before Lawbreakers. Before the studio was even founded I might add.

Overwatch was unveiled in 2014. Lawbreakers was unveiled in 2015.

And Lawbreakers essentially has hero types like Assassin and Combat Medic. That is literally how a lot of hero shooters work. So it's hardly any different from the fad it was trying to emulate.

So yes it followed what Blizzard was clearly doing and thought that it could take on the big boys by following a fad. It failed hard. And quite frankly considering the studio tried to follow a BR fad and failed it's clear the man in charge should not be associated with video games ever again in his life.

[RobertoCarlos]

Pretty good early birthday present and proof god is real.

If god was real babies wouldnt be born with cancer and types of wasps wouldnt inject their young into worms.

This studio was run by a egomaniac and got what was coming in the end.

[Video Games]

This studio was run by a egomaniac and got what was coming in the end.

Matthew 20:18: And cliffy shall not touch a game again

Come on, at least read the bible.

[Edge-]

And Lawbreakers essentially has hero types like Assassin and Combat Medic. That is literally how a lot of hero shooters work. So it's hardly any different from the fad it was trying to emulate.

Eh, it was far more generic to try to compete with Overwatch, and Cliff even clearly stated that it was never his intention to go after that audience. There was minimal overlap in that there were rudimentary "heroes", but it was very much always intended to go more towards the arena shooter crowd rather than the hero shooter crowd. There's plenty of overlap between the two, but they're still very much different subgenres. If anything, it was in close competition with the Unreal reboot that Epic is still quietly working on.

I can dig it up again, but Cliff even did an interview where he was pretty clear about this with PC Gamer a while ago. Here's another with one of the lead devs about how they were actively trying to move away from what Overwatch was doing to avoid this problem - https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...f_shooters.php

Obviously their efforts didn't pan out, and between horrible marketing, Cliff's own efforts to sink the game, and issues with the game at launch it never really found an audience.

They followed the BR fad because Nexon probably was about to yank funding and they had to crap out something to try to keep the lights on...and this is what we got.

[RobertoCarlos]

Matthew 20:18: And cliffy shall not touch a game again

Come on, at least read the bible.

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and Cliffy himself will be with them as their God.”

[Tech614]

Would you be laughing if the weekly paycheck you used to pay your bills stopped coming in and I said it was "nothing of value"?

As usual, my condolences to the developers. Even if I didn't like their products, it is never a good day when people lose their jobs and studios close down. I hope they'll find satisfactory employment again soon!

The developers will be fine.

Epic is literally a short drive away, and due to the smash success of Fortnite they are in full on expansion mode. Most of those devs will likely end up there.

Literally 12 miles away from each other, devs don't need to move and they already know how to use Unreal Engine as well as worked on a BR game. It's a no brainer.

[dope_danny]

Not really.

And to be honest I wouldn't mind if Blizzard did one. I mean they could just throw it on as a game mode for Overwatch realistically.

Hope most of the devs do get picked up though by bigger names.

honestly i think i would rather some smite style controls for heros of the storm. 50 blizzard heros and some shrinking maps full of moba ability horseshit could be neat.

[Video Games]

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and Cliffy himself will be with them as their God.”

Amen. praise cliffy

[Mister Cheese]

Cliff is a cuck and rode off his Oculus fortune trying to chase the fame he had with Gears of War. Only to find out that he too, can fly too close to the sun and burn.

[Jtbrig7390]

https://twitter.com/ron_lajoie/statu...93337672273920

Looks like Cliffy didn't tell the staff till he told twitter, what a complete chode.

Wow hes more of a piece of shit then I originally thought he was.

Ill make sure to not buy another game that his name is on the box.

[Notshauna]

So Lawbreakers was in development since before 2010 then?

Overwatch uses remnants of what Titan would have been and was made by quite a lot of that team. However Overwatch development properly started in 2012/2013 with the cancellation of Titan.

Lawbreakers studio wasn't even founded until 2014. So development couldn't have started until at least then other than minor concepts. So even leaving out the Titan part you are wrong and Overwatch was in development before Lawbreakers. Before the studio was even founded I might add.

Overwatch was unveiled in 2014. Lawbreakers was unveiled in 2015.

And Lawbreakers essentially has hero types like Assassin and Combat Medic. That is literally how a lot of hero shooters work. So it's hardly any different from the fad it was trying to emulate.

So yes it followed what Blizzard was clearly doing and thought that it could take on the big boys by following a fad. It failed hard. And quite frankly considering the studio tried to follow a BR fad and failed it's clear the man in charge should not be associated with video games ever again in his life.

I know Overwatch was in production first but Lawbreakers was in production before Overwatch was announced, or are you accusing them for ripping off a game that no one outside of Blizzard even knew about? Beyond that there is your argument that it's a hero shooter because it has different classes of characters, which proves your lack of knowledge on this subject matter. The existence of a medic class a hero shooter does not make, for example the Battlefield series has a medic class, yet is not a hero shooter. Compare and contrast how the Combat Medic is played versus Mercy or the Medic in TF2 then compare them to the Assassin, Genji and the scout comparatively. You'll notice that in the later two examples it's like they are playing an entirely different game but in Lawbreakers case it's actually quite similar.

[Eleccybubb]

I know Overwatch was in production first but Lawbreakers was in production before Overwatch was announced, or are you accusing them for ripping off a game that no one outside of Blizzard even knew about? Beyond that there is your argument that it's a hero shooter because it has different classes of characters, which proves your lack of knowledge on this subject matter. The existence of a medic class a hero shooter does not make, for example the Battlefield series has a medic class, yet is not a hero shooter. Compare and contrast how the Combat Medic is played versus Mercy or the Medic in TF2 then compare them to the Assassin, Genji and the scout comparatively. You'll notice that in the later two examples it's like they are playing an entirely different game but in Lawbreakers case it's actually quite similar.

Where did I say they ripped it off?

Overwatch had been in development since at least 2013 according to interviews. Production doesn't start when a game is announced. And considering how playable the initial demo was at Blizzcon it's safe to say they would have started shifting direction towards it in very early 2013 or possibly late 2012.

Lawbreakers couldn't have possibly started any development until at least 2014 when the studio was founded.

Ironic you call out my lack of knowledge on the matter then proceed to present your own lack of knowledge though. Keep going for it.

[Notshauna]

Where did I say they ripped it off?

Overwatch had been in development since at least 2013.

Lawbreakers couldn't have possibly started any development until at least 2014 when the studio was founded.

You called it a fad chaser, when it was development before the fad even started, and it's not even a hero shooter. Radical Heights was a fad chaser (as it was a game thrown together in a desperate bid to have the company not shut down) but Lawbreakers for all it's flaws can not be rightly called so.

[Eleccybubb]

You called it a fad chaser, when it was development before the fad even started, and it's not even a hero shooter. Radical Heights was a fad chaser (as it was a game thrown together in a desperate bid to have the company not shut down) but Lawbreakers for all it's flaws can not be rightly called so.

And again.

Overwatch started development in 2013. 2012 at the absolute earliest from dev interviews.

Lawbreakers could not have started anything major until 2014 since the studio developing it was not formed until then. Maybe they had concepts but who knows.

Unless you can 100% say Lawbreakers started development in 2012/2013 then you have nothing here.

[Jtbrig7390]

You called it a fad chaser, when it was development before the fad even started, and it's not even a hero shooter. Radical Heights was a fad chaser (as it was a game thrown together in a desperate bid to have the company not shut down) but Lawbreakers for all it's flaws can not be rightly called so.

It was a fad chaser. Overwatch released May 24, 2016 with a dam near year long beta before and Paladin's released in the same year. Lawbreaker's was put into development in 2014 with its first reveal trailer in 2015. Overwatch was in development longer then Lawbreaker's and so was Paladin's.

The thing is it does not matter who was in development first, What matters is who releases first. The first game to release sets the standard and many delay's kept Lawbreaker's from releasing.

So when it finally came out it had to do something to set itself apart from all the other Hero shooters. It had a few things that did set it apart but Cliffy with his wisdom decided to market it super piss poor and like normal bad marketing leads to a failed game.

Lawbreaker's had some good idea's but poorly executed them and Cliffy's "Dude Bro Dick Waving I'm Edgey E-Sports Billion Dollar IP" marketing put the final nail in its coffin before the game even released.

On top of all of that he outright ignored putting it on XboxOne and after release ignored the PS4 player base.

Cliff Bleszinski has been a marketing train wreck since after Gears of War 3 and hes lucky if Epic Games doesn't try to sue his ass since he accused them of soliciting his employee's. The fact he partnered with Nexon over anyone else shows how many bridges he burned in the gaming industry.

[dope_danny]

Cliff is a cuck and rode off his Oculus fortune trying to chase the fame he had with Gears of War. Only to find out that he too, can fly too close to the sun and burn.

This was Cliffys Minor Daikatana phase.

[Eleccybubb]

Apparently Cliff said he got more "hugs than middle fingers" today.

With only around 60 known employees or so I somehow doubt that if you count people outside of the company.

I somehow doubt his staff were supportive of how he handled the whole thing either. That or they were just being professional about it. I mean I wouldn't blame them. Who the fuck wants to support someone who closes down a studio without giving any warning or notice to staff.

Quite frankly the video gaming industry is better off without him.

[Nutri]

I never played Radical Heights or Lawbreakers, but looking at Youtube they seem to be clones of Fortnite and Overwatch? (regardless of which studio made their game first, they look very similar).