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Cliffy B: Putting Lawbreakers on PS4 instead of Xbox was a mistake
- Thread starter Ehoavash
- Start date
I legitimately liked Lawbreakers, but every commercial and marketing decision taken around the core game - which was a sleek modernisation of the arena shooter format - was just plan stupid. Releasing the game on Xbox as well would have made very little difference.
It needed to be on both Xbox and PlayStation with crossplay as well as being F2P to have stood a chance, IMO.
Having much better marketing that didn't revolve around CliffyB being a douche and a much better art direction wouldn't have hurt, either.
Having much better marketing that didn't revolve around CliffyB being a douche and a much better art direction wouldn't have hurt, either.
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Unless you have stats to back it up then the correct statement would be that a majority enjoyed Gears on a 360 in the 2000's. The console market had dramatically shifted by the time Lawbreakers came out. You would be hard pressed to convince me enough of those people stuck with Xbox and Xbox only to make a difference in sales.
That "SJW" thing (he used the word woke though) is about him putting his personal politics in the game, which are somewhat progressive. They made an effort to have a diverse group of characters and non-sexualized female designs. You can read more here, interview with art director Tramell Isaac https://www.alistdaily.com/media/diversity-impacting-lawbreakers-game/. The studio itself was also diverse by the by. And of course this is something that always gets some people riled up, as we know people complain a lot about inclusion/representation. Though I personally think that we have examples in Overwatch and Apex Legends that being inclusive will not tank your game. But of course when the game is struggling, they need every player to survive, even the bigots. He implied the game and studio should had found success first. So it's not like he is "anti-SJW" or anything, but that he is the "SJW".
Bleszinski regrets being too political with LawBreakers
Cliff Bleszinski has a few takeaways from the 2018 demise of the studio he co-founded, Boss Key Productions. In a post …
www.gamesindustry.biz
"One big epiphany I had was that I pushed my own personal political beliefs in a world that was increasingly divided.
"Instead of the story being 'this game looks neat' it became "this is the game with the 'woke bro' trying to push his hackey politics on us with gender neutral bathrooms.' Instead of 'these characters seem fun' it was 'this is the studio with the CEO who refuses to make his female characters sexier.' Instead of 'who am I going to choose' it became "white dude shoehorns diversity in his game and then smells his own smug farts in interviews' instead of just letting the product … speak for itself.
"It's okay to be political when your company or studio is established for great product FIRST. But we were unproven and I regret doing it."
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Man, he really can't move on from this. It'd be funny if it wasn't so genuinely sad. I almost feel bad for the guy, because he clearly hasn't been able to work past Lawbreakers' failure or take any kind of responsibility for it, and it's affected him enough that he still can't stop trying to make excuses for it all this time later.
I'm not usually a fan of his rhetoric or attitude, but I hope he's able to let this go and make another successful game someday, or at least find some measure of peace about it.
I'm not usually a fan of his rhetoric or attitude, but I hope he's able to let this go and make another successful game someday, or at least find some measure of peace about it.
It helps those games because those games clicked with the audience. It's not a magical service that will help a failed game. SOT, SOD, Halo, and FH are all big-name games that sold great even without gamepass. This game would have failed just like bleeding-edge because issue was not platform but game itself
I didn't even know that Lawbreakers was also released on PS4. I thought it was PC only.
But even if I had known I wouldn't have bought it. They should have made it F2P so that more players would have given it a chance.
An Xbox version instead of a PS4 version wouldn't have changed anything.
But even if I had known I wouldn't have bought it. They should have made it F2P so that more players would have given it a chance.
An Xbox version instead of a PS4 version wouldn't have changed anything.
Humble Cliff would say: "We had many mistakes, I think one of them was not launching the game on Xbox, since our fanbase was bigger there thanks to Gears"
I agree if the game was bad then there would be little or no hope at all.
Definitely sad in regards to the severance, as well as misplaced victimhood with the game's progressivism. Thanks for the summary.
And then running with the "get woke, go broke" kinda stuff, saying that his game didn't do well partly because he was too progressive:
"In case I didn't make it clear I mean that this was *A* factor, not THE. Marketing, timing, being on ps over xbox, and more were also factors. Stupid clickbait headlines I hope you got the hits you wanted. 🤑🤨 Hung it in the garage. Ironic the sign got kinda messed up in transport, ain't it?
Ever since the studio closed I've been wracking my brain what I could have done differently. Pivot HARD when the juggernaut of Overwatch was announced. Been less nice with my design ideas and more of a dictator with them.
One big epiphany I had was that I pushed my own personal political beliefs in a world that was increasingly divided.
Instead of the story being "this game looks neat" it became "this is the game with the 'woke bro' trying to push his hackey politics on us with gender neutral bathrooms." Instead of "these characters seem fun" it was "this is the studio with the CEO who refuses to make his female characters sexier." Instead of "who am I going to choose" it became "white dude shoehorns diversity in his game and then smells his own smug farts in interviews" instead of just letting the product ... speak for itself.
It's okay to be political when your company or studio is established for great product FIRST. But we were unproven and I regret doing it. (This will be quite the doozy of a chapter in the upcoming memoir.) "
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The game just like bleeding edge wasn't bad but there is no place for arena shooters anymore. Even free quake and UT had issues getting playerbase.
Glad he finally admits that. Of course the game failed for many reasons, but that definitely was a big contributor.
He's not wrong. Xbox gamers would've gravitated more towards a Cliffy B game. Unreal Championship also had success on the platform. As a fan of Unreal style twitch shooters, I was very interested in the game. Watching videos of it, I still want to play it today. Issue was I only play single player games on PS4 due to the controller. Initially waited for it to come to Xbox. Then it died. Still don't understand the lack of a port.
I still believe Lawbreakers would be fun as hell on an Elite controller.
I still believe Lawbreakers would be fun as hell on an Elite controller.
charging people for lawbreakers was the biggest mistake they made. people just don't pay money for that kind of game when there are so many free to pay alternatives. overwatch is the exception
The people on this website habitually need to make a thread about any random ass tweet he makes.
Plenty of yall care, and give the man head space rent free.
Oh it's an amazing movie. I am surprised you haven't seen it.
He's such a tool. I have loved many a game that people would consider "woke" and go back to them. The fact is, Lawbreakers wasn't fun. Neither was it for any of my friends. Not a single character stuck out as "yes I can't wait to sign in and play as this character" and the game consistently was annoying rather than fun.
"Yes, I can't wait to get on this awkward hardly approachable party shooter and listen to Mr. Meme Character From Rick and Morty yell at me haha this will never get old!!" - Nobody Ever
"Yes, I can't wait to get on this awkward hardly approachable party shooter and listen to Mr. Meme Character From Rick and Morty yell at me haha this will never get old!!" - Nobody Ever
He said resources were limited at that time so the choice was either PS4 or XBOX1. So saying that it was a mistake that they chose PS4 instead of XBOX1 implies that if they chose XBOX1 then the game wouldn't have failed.
There was no maybe though, he explicitly said it was a mistake to put it on PS4 instead of XBOX1. I agree though that it's not that big of a deal.
My slight issue is that I doubt that he made that comment without knowing that fanboys would latch onto it and in the process bring more eyes into his promotion of his memoirs.
I doubt that would have made much of a difference really, but maybe I'm wrong and he has a big dedicated audience on Xbox who would know about and buy the game purely for his name association.
He's been talking up his dumb memoir for like two years now.
Ah yes, Cliffy B. The man who refuses to ever take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
Making Lawbreakers exclusive for the console with 50 percent less people, yeah that definitely is what would have turned your bomba into a success
Excuse Andy over here amirite?
LMAO
Of course it's all just to shill his book. God I hate him. Crazy to think I was a fan of his back in the day.
Making Lawbreakers exclusive for the console with 50 percent less people, yeah that definitely is what would have turned your bomba into a success
Excuse Andy over here amirite?
LMAO
Of course it's all just to shill his book. God I hate him. Crazy to think I was a fan of his back in the day.
It just wasn't a compelling title, cliff.
It flopped on pc.. Where you had an unreal tournament "following" too..
It flopped on pc.. Where you had an unreal tournament "following" too..