LawBreakers dev Boss Key Productions shuts down

Boss Key Productions founder Cliff Bleszinski has announced that the studio is “effectively no more,” noting that the studio’s efforts to recover after the decline of LawBreakers was “too little too late.”

“Four years ago I set out to make a world-class video game studio and I hired some of the best talent in the video game industry,” wrote Bleszinski in a statement on Twitter. “They worked tirelessly to produce quality products and, while we had our ups and downs, I’d like to think we had fun doing it.”

Bleszinski set up Boss Key Productions in 2014, partnering with Nexon to build the competitive online shooter that eventually became LawBreakers. The game itself launched in late 2017, but failed to attract enough attention to support ongoing development of the game and was sunset in April 2018.

Shortly after ending active LawBreakers development, Boss Key went on to release an Early Access battle royale game called Radical Heights but Bleszinski notes in his statement that the game, though well received, was “too little too late.” While the effective closure likely means Radical Heights will remain as it is in Early Access, Bleszinski says the servers will remain up for the “near future.”

“LawBreakers was a great game that unfortunately failed to gain traction, and, in a last-ditch attempt we scrambled to do our take on the huge battle royale genre with Radical Heights which was well received, however, it was too little too late,” wrote Bleszinski. “As for myself, I’m going to take some time off and reflect. I need to focus on myself and my family as well as my Aussie, Teddy, who is slowly fading from us.” 

“Video games will forever be a part of who I am and I hope to make something new again someday, however, I need to withdraw and take this time. To those who have supported myself and the studio these last [four] years, thank you from the bottom of my heart and everyone who came to work for me.”