The Hero Shooter Doomed By Its Developer? - Lawbreakers

[@Daniel-lx7hn]

"$29.99, none of the $60 multiplayer-only game bullshit." - Cliff Bleszinski (2017)

[@arrivals1]

Crowbcat cut together every instance of him saying that and goddamn it gets me every time. You know damn well he practiced saying that in the mirror for hours 🤣

[@MrVlad12340]

*Cliffy B.

[@SourRobo8364]

It was honestly a great pitch. I fell for it.

[@vrika4280]

@@SourRobo8364 I disliked him right then and there, sounded like a prick

[@litrim1285]

The same kind of energy as “Charles Stiles, “Mystery Diners””.

[@IBonePokemon4Fun]

Lawbreakers: You took everything from me! Overwatch: I don't even know who you are.

[@BenjaminBüchler]

Good one m8

[@jaishkhan7442]

Overwatch also fucked Battleborn lmao just imagine those games killed by Overwatch releasing today (when overwatch is killed by Blizzard itself)

[@garretwoeller7669]

Ironically overwatch killed itself so in the end overwatch didn't win still wish for a rerelease of lawbreakers the game was super fucking cool

[@BenjaminBüchler]

@@garretwoeller7669 I think ow just needs ow2, i‘m actually curious how the hype is going to be but i have high expectations since we literally had no new event since archives 3 and no new hero since march 2020

[@ItzClobert]

@@garretwoeller7669 How did OW not 'win' in this case? BB and LB both lasted maybe a month playerbase wise, while OW is still very active as far as casual players. Sure, the game is on a downward trend because of developer neglect and announcing OW2 WAY too early. But compared to the other games, it's made its money, and has lasted longer than most FPS games will. Saying a game didn't 'win' because it's dying five-six years down the line is a bit weird to me. And I'm not even a huge OW person.

[@analytixna6610]

My favorite quote was the "I feel like we've made the dark souls of first person shooters" cause my god did that age like milk

[@theotherjared9824]

He went on and on about how he had the best ideas but everyone else was too complacent to see his genius. The rest of the world is at fault, not him.

[@elin111]

@@theotherjared9824 That's what arrogant ass hated egomaniacs whine whenever they fail.

[@RusticRonnie]

@@theotherjared9824he literally said that the failure of this game and radical Heights were all his fault multiple times So literally the opposite of what you said, and he went on to help ensure his team landed on their feet. Don’t slander people, He may have been cocky before with Gears, but lawbreakers is mostly just marketing hype and out of context interviews. He definitely got humbled from this though.

[@judyhopps9380]

it is the dark souls of FPS.... "it died"

[@xILLxChronic]

it didn't age like milk, it sounded like shit the moment he said it

[@PathForger_]

I'd like to hear "Free to Play. None of that $29.99 Bull". ^_~ The truth is that players don't know if they are going to get invested into a given game when they first hear about it or consider picking it up. They might even watch some compelling plays, but whether barriers to experience a game exit is a question that can make or break a game's player-base. Free to play games can thrive or at least continue to exist and function long past their prime also... Oh... and it is increasingly my opinion that games designed for consoles 'need' to offer a compelling single player experience and a player-base-forgiving-and-accessible multiplayer experience to not suffer player starvation. This also applies to PC/Steam - but especially to consoles. Well-covered, as always.

[@ReigoVassal]

If I heard that the initial price increased before the game released. And it's not from indie dev. I see a flag in the color of red.

[@SatansTesticls]

I was so excited about this game I bought it as soon as it was available for purchase on Steam. I honestly thought it was a fun game but I guess I was one of the few people who felt that way :(

[@X19Virus]

Hm, I don't think fun factor was too big of a reason it went under the way it did

[@isssma0]

The pain is just you'd rather play either CS:GO or Overwatch, depending on your tastes. Lawbreakers is in between.

[@marwinout]

too bad. sounds like a good game too make me want to eat some bean

[@g0oberdm417]

The fact it didn't build a community really hampered things, just unfortunate

[@neuro3423]

This game was coming out just as I was switching to PC. The beta was a blast and absolutely would have been my game. Then they made terrible business decisions

[@KennyCutout]

It was the sweatiest game I ever played. Not even Quake or Titanfall 2 felt that sweaty to play. Like you'd spawn in and two seconds later you're in a fight because everyone moves around the map so fast due to high move speed and small maps, and the skill gaps were huge so you had to go full tryhard to stand a chance against someone even a little better than you and playing against people worse than you felt like shooting fish in a barrel! Don't get me wrong, I liked the game a lot! But I don't think it had enough broad/casual appeal to sustain a player base.

[@Hanagigi]

And that is why I liked it, every improvement in skill and every success felt great. Good plays felt so good, it really fostered gameplay situations that were CLEARLY cool "360 noscope" moments. But yes, as a beginner or a scrub (which everyone starts as) it was fucking brutal.

[@manamaster6]

I loved Titanfall 1 and I would have loved to play Lawbreakers, but I didn't have a PC powerful enough to run it back then. In Splitgate I feel something similar but a bit toned down to what you are mentioning of the skill level, I've been in matches where I'm destroyed and in others where it feels like shooting fish in a barrel.

[@jitspoe]

Yeah, I think this, fundamentally, was the largest problem. Later watching how people played Radical Heights, I was thinking, "Man, these people would absolutely get SHREDDED in LawBreakers. It's no wonder it didn't take off." Really disappointing, though, because it was, by far, the most fun I've ever had playing a game.

[@wudly9195]

So he was kind of right saying his game wasn't as casual as Overwatch? Honestly, I kind of hate Overwatch. (no disrespect to those who like it). It feels like more of a moba than a shooter. Ult timing and abilities are greater than mechanical skill. It may as well be labled a moba..

[@jitspoe]

@@wudly9195 Yeah, Overwatch was a hero game with shooter elements whereas LawBreakers was a shooter game with hero elements.

[@Milagro_Man]

As it turns out, crapping on your largest competitor by saying it's for 'cashuls' and 'for children' because it dared to have color in it's artstyle and then coming out with some of the blandest character designs in a game with a super steep learning curve damages your playerbase

[@serqanx1]

yeah him being a complete a..hole was one of many reasons it flopped.

[@neonoir__]

Yeah, absolutely hate how the game looks, it has the basic ass military shooter weapon and character models and just looks bland and uninteresting. Also some colour and less realistic but interesting looking map design would have done it good imo.

[@protocetid]

his attitude was stuck in the 2000s TBH

[@Spiritshakerthe4th]

Thank you for speaking the truth, but also thank you for your appreciation of beta Probopass.

[@ratamahatta5306]

Ikr, seeing f2p games are the trends nowadays, i wonder if Lawbreakers stays f2p, released on xbox and cliff keep his mouth shut i think it might have a chance

[@reynardlee2235]

was really excited for the game initially as a F2P. Being F2P makes it alot easier to convince friends to try. Was kinda dissappinted when it was announced to be $29.99

[@mirza2698]

"$29.99, none of that $60 multiplayer-only bullshit"

[@joseph2000117]

And it was originally supposed to be F2P before Cliff changed the price tag. Terrible move. Pride before the fall

[@Peremptor]

It good so bad on the steam forums that they only let game owners post on the main forum since everyone was asking "ftp when?''.

[@CyberLance26]

Thats one of the reasons why Fortnite became so popular yea.

[@ratamahatta5306]

Ikr, seeing f2p games are the trends nowadays, i wonder if Lawbreakers stays f2p, released on xbox and cliff keep his mouth shut i think it might have a chance

[@craftyplayz8150]

I remember seeing gameplay of this game and thinking it looked sick. I really wish it had gotten more popular

[@PotionOfProof]

Its was really fun for me. The flying lady was the best character imo.

[@wudly9195]

It does look sick and high skill cap from what I hear of those who played it. I dont think Cliff's attitude had anything to do with why it failed. If it came out Now, with Battle royals dying down, and Overwatch hype being basically gone, it would do well.

[@craftyplayz8150]

@@wudly9195 agreed. It just wasn’t the right time to release

[@ausaskar]

You totally neglected the marketing angle. Lawbreakers was marketed as ""a hardcore arena FPS for hardcore arena FPS players"" and ""if you suck you suck, this game won't handhold you"" outright derisively so. The intent was to provoke players to take up the challenge and test their might, but the message completely belly-flopped and drove interest away.

[@drewbilly9]

What’s wrong with gender neutral bathrooms?

[@borutoburrito6547]

@@drewbilly9 I think the more important question is who the fuck cares about a gender neutral bathroom? I'm here to play an FPS not talk about politics.

[@chadmartin4525]

@@drewbilly9 Everything

[@LaggyLuke]

@@chadmartin4525 what's the difference between gendered and gender neutral bathrooms? Here in Finland we have toilet seats any genitals can urinate into

[@elin111]

The bathroom thing had jackshit to do with teh game's failure and only the most pettiest of petty whiny shitheads would bitch about it.

[@Larry]

I own TWO copies of the limited edition physical collectors edition of Law Breakers. Not because I actually wanted it, but because it was the only way I could get the collectors edition of Wonder Boy III as well as it came in a bundle. But I own two $150 paper weights now >.>

[@CrystalBrightz]

Hold on to it!

[@dxninjazero5876]

Omf... I am so sorry for you Larry.

[@apexpredator9163]

Yo rip the data from the disc and put it online so people can download the game from a zip file online and then someone out there can make the game playable online by making there own servers

[@Larry]

@@apexpredator9163 Well it's freely available digitally, the only difference is the disc version would be a 1,0 unpatched version of the game.

[@apexpredator9163]

@@Larry could u send a download link cuz i cant fine one thats not virus filled

[@joncooper3910]

The free to play thing killed it. I played the beta and it was so much damn fun. I remember thinking it could pull me off of overwatch. But then it realeased to bad player counts, and I didn't want to risk blowing $30 on a game that might not make it. And I was so disappointed when it didn't. But if it had been free to play, I would have played day 1, along with who knows how many others

[@TheShapingSickness]

Rip the dude who got a lawbreakers tattoo

[@loner1520]

oof

[@Daftanemone]

I hate that I looked up to cliffyb. He revealed himself to be a complete tool after the lawbreakers failure. He refused to admit how many flaws lawbreakers had and he blamed the fans

[@CrystalBrightz]

If Lawbreakers doesn't make a comeback as an arena shooter, there is a space for the game within the TTRPG community. Not that people would necessarily know this, but LB had rich storytelling, interesting factions, and a deep, lore-rich universe. Shame people never got to see that for themselves.

[@SuckItDown]

All they needed to do is added a LAN mode and this game could breath some fresh air, they still can do it, but i doubt.

[@blacxthornE]

I think it also suffered a lot from having no recognizable character, when Overwatch had *so* much. A lot of people started playing Overwatch on its characters alone. I really wanted lawbreakers to succeed but it surely lacked that charm.

[@ValentinoMarino11]

Cliff himself lacked that charm. That asshole has ZERO charisma, and everytime he opens his damn mouth it’s just throwing shade at something else. He can’t keep his fuckin’ mouth shut.

[@randomnoobpt]

Even today I still wish to play lawbreakers at least once. Movement shooters are always fun. It's bad it didn't survive for as long as Overwatch. It could have been a sort of Titanfall, already dated but still holding core fans

[@noticeme6412]

Same. The Titanfall community is still strong even with all the servers being hacked

[@joandarc441]

Same with Team fortress 2

[@arbiter1er]

I feel like CliffyB wanted to be a rock star in the video game industry. It's a shame that he tanked what was a really good arena shooter, but unfortunately that's how things are.

[@joandarc441]

His Ego was his downfall

[@BlazingDiancie]

John Romero was another prime example.

[@jfncho]

he's never been the same since he dropped the name "Cliffy B"

[@DougyisHere]

lawbreakers was a genuinely a good and fun game i personally feel like if it came out today maybe with some better character personalities it could carve out a strong probably not huge community

[@grinbrothers]

Ah one of the many "compared too and quickly overshadowed by Overwatch games" of the time, despite it's attempts not to be compared. A nice summary of the events and the statements from Cliff regarding the Xbox was new information for me.

[@Idk-pu6yb]

It’s cool to see these “lost” games

[@notxlucas-_-9508]

I wish this game would make a comeback it was so fun

[@lynscrap]

I actually played lawbreakers and it was really fun, the movement and some abilities were very good but the network just wasn't there.

[@iberis361]

If you market your game as _"I'm not like the other girls!"_ when in fact, it is another hero shooter, insulting the current market and cutting a large potential playerbase on console because of biases who built your foundation. Yeah, its a disaster waiting to happen

[@joaopedrocruz6432]

But it was different in this case, at least on the gameplay front. Although he could have phrased it better.

[@tc59932]

The gameplay has more in common with Halo than Overwatch. People making incorrect assumptions about the game related to OW is what helped kill it.

[@andyoats]

...I've seen this exact comment on another video about this game, I'm sure.

[@ehrenvaterdodo4026]

I saw the title and thought yes another overwatch vid and i was surprised when i saw it wasnt overwatch lol

[@frappdoeseverything1202]

LMAO

[@sera48g]

LMFAOOO☠️☠️☠️

[@saturatedjorts]

Overwatch hasn't been doomed?

[@sera48g]

@@saturatedjorts yes but it's at it's lowest rn. little to no information on the sequel, lacking communication and updates

[@TibbyII]

"I think we've created the Dark Souls of competitive hero shooters" Lmao.

[@Milagro_Man]

"I could pitch the most amazing idea to anybody" Proceeds to make class based shooter with 1 (one) gimmick

[@kered13]

Lawbreakers is one of the most fun games I have ever played. I kept playing it almost until the very end (double digit player count), when the low population and idle bots made it essentially impossible to find a match.

[@TheMemagNeman]

Same here buddy.

[@silvianbruno7512]

"I could pitch the most amazing idea" why do I get the feeling that Cliff assumes all of his ideas were amazing

[@elin111]

Just like Yuji Naka, Kojima, John Romero, Keiji Inafune, the list goes on.

[@manamaster6]

Back when it launched I didn't have a PC powerful enough to run it correctly, so I didn't even try to download it, but now that I'm enjoying Splitgate so much and the Halo multiplayer as it is, I would have loved to try Lawbreakers.

[@noimpostersgaming]

I remember when they were doing the open beta weekend me and a friend probably put 20+ hours into the game during that weekend alone. Then when the beta was over and it came time to actually put up the $30 to buy it I bought it but my friend didn't. I maybe put like 5 more hours into the game and eventually stopped playing. I feel like this probably sums up the Lawbreakers experience for most people.

[@donut358]

All the gameplay you showed looks so hype now I miss a game I never knew existed 😭

[@TylorHuebner]

This game was legit a lot of fun. It's a real shame this game couldn't hold on a little longer then it did. I think this game would have popped off during the GOATS meta in overwatch.

[@MouseSPAL]

I think when people say they want arena shooters of old, they're looking through rose-tinted glasses. A lot of the mechanics have come a long way in terms of accessibility, player retention, and mechanics. It's sort of like me saying that I want JRPG's of old like Dragon Warrior. They were a great part of my childhood, but in reality when I do go back to an old classic, it is very difficult to complete one. I just don't have the time and attention to plod along at a RPG where most of the memories are built off of actions done many times, and the story is actually quite threadbare due to limitations of the time.

[@noirlavender6409]

Millions of people still play counterstrike 1.6, ut1 and quake, im sure there must have been other problems like that 30$ price tag

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

@@noirlavender6409 Is that why there are a sh"t ton of people begging Id studios to do for Quake what they did for Doom? Because they are satisfied with past releases and their limited playerbase?

[@jmax1245]

I mostly agree, things like old school rocket jumping being unintuitive is kind of annoying but I feel few games catch the speed that old arena shooters had. I would compare old arena shooters like quake to MVC2. While dbz fighterz is more like overwatch.

[@MouseSPAL]

@Bob Duckington Wait we're talking about old arena shooters and if their mechanics have aged well enough to warrant making a new game with few changes and an audience then supporting and buying the game. I love that people go back and play old games, but I did use my analogy of old JRPG's as a way of showing that people probably would not be interested in buying a newly made JRPG with mechanics that have not grown, evolved, and/or changed. Smash brawl, Counterstrike, MVC2, all great examples of games that have a playerbase willing to play them after many years despite newer iterations with more accessible mechanics, but they are also games that have had newer, successful iterations due to making changes to the formula. When people ask if there is a new arena shooter that stays true to the old ways of having a high skill ceiling, focus on fast movement and unique weapons, I can't really think of a modern example where people voted with their wallets that they wanted it and more of it.

[@MouseSPAL]

@Bob Duckington I'm going to disagree that JRPG's have gone barely past Gameboy/NES era. The story's have become more full with better writing, animations and voice acting. Also mechanics have transitioned away from simply gaining power and skills at level ups to numerous forays into skill trees, classes, social bonds, etc. I will agree with you that most successful games series are iterative. Why change a good thing especially when it's your core? But like your last post you're kind of confusing me on what you're trying to communicate. By making the point of successful series being iterative, are you saying that old arena shooters like Unreal and Quake aren't successful because they don't have a working formula to spam? Therefore no successors have come out for those game series? The conversation was not about if games can be successful by using mechanics from years ago, but if arena shooters could be successful today if they released with similar mechanics to years ago without incorporating newer gaming ideas like accessibility, progression, and retention.

[@Cobble01]

Overwatch helped kill both Lawbreakers and Battleborn. The difference is that Lawbreakers did everything they could to escape Overwatch’s attention, while Battleborn dove straight into it, challenged them head on, effectively killing themselves.

[@zionzion9371]

Just because a game is good dosent mean it killed another

[@Cobble01]

@@zionzion9371 Correct, but direct competition can definitely kill a game. Without enough sales, any multiplayer game will have to shut down its servers.

[@zionzion9371]

@@Cobble01 yeah but wouldn't that just be the other games fault

[@Cobble01]

@@zionzion9371 A lot of factors are involved in two games competing and one of them dying out. Look at Battleborn and Overwatch. Those games are NOTHING alike but Battleborn’s marketing head decided to make it look like a direct competitor to Overwatch. This was a terrible idea because OW was being developed by a much bigger studio. It made gamers wanna pick between one and the other, and players looking at Battleborn like an Overwatch type-game were severely disappointed because the game was more of a MOBA and not what was promised in ads. TLDR: Battleborn was killed by bad marketing and Overwatch’s success.

[@zionzion9371]

@@Cobble01 yeah but overwatch would have nothing to do with it if it's the other game biting what they can't chew

[@dialectiks]

as an arena shooter fan, i'm really bummed about this :(

[@nerobiblios4086]

Man, everything Cliff said to promote this game ultimately came back to bite him in the end.

[@theotherjared9824]

The game has subpar art direction. There are these big, sprawling maps with the same corridors that are easy to get lost in and character designs that are hard to distinguish as they fly past you, making gameplay even more reactionary and ruining most forms of strategy. Compare that to Overwatch with their simpler, more visually diverse maps and wildly different looking and more animated characters that help with visual clarity and make gameplay more tactical and strategic.

[@almalone3282]

Looking back now every lawbreaker character had a *block* thing going on like everything was perfectly square

[@Henbot]

It was just OW swallowed the market of hero shooter but then showed how terrible that type of game is

[@Nooter_]

i was literally just watching a video about lawbreakers lmao. it sucks that battleborn died on release. but I don't really feel bad about the fail of lawbreakers with how cliff handled the press

[@oguve278]

I remember buying this within the first week of release. It felt so unique and the gameplay so chaotic, very fun. It really saddens me to see what happened eventually, and think about the huge potential the game had...

[@dianwei32]

Honestly, one of my least favorite things about Lawbreakers was just that you couldn't choose/control which side you were on. I liked playing the Battle Medic, but I despised the Breaker Medic character. So if I got into a game as the Breakers, I had to play as a character I hated to play as the class I liked. Not to mention they went hard on the lootboxes/cosmetics, but any cosmetics you get will be worthless half of the time when you're on the opposite team. Got a cool new skin for the Law Valkyrie character? Too fucking bad, you're on the Breakers.

[@DanDennisRobloxman]

Heavily agree. Even if doesn't make canonical sense, hero shooters should never lock Heroes by sides

[@highjumpkick999]

@@DanDennisRobloxman honestly this applies to any game with named characters.

[@ChungusJuan]

Law breakers could’ve been good but marketing was horrible

[@redneckedcrake7059]

I tried Lawbreakers during a free beta period, just because I heard it was some sort of arena shooter, but I quit after an hour because it was yet another team-based FPS. If I'm playing an arena shooter I can't be bothered trying to play with randoms in a team. I still remember someone on my side going absolutely apeshit because it was almost all new players who didn't know what was going on.

[@jonh6287]

Tbh one player can wipe out the whole team so you don't have to rely on your teammates that much also had a dude go ballistic on me because I got hit with an invincible bug and couldn't do damage in ranked 😂 dude was raging like a mf

[@omryTKD]

DUDE I LOVED THIS GAME SO MUCH!!! it was actually so much fun, im still so sad it had almost no time to live

[@kryptik2230]

I really miss this game :(

[@thadex454]

This Cliff guy must be REALLY fun to be around at parties...

[@energydrinklock]

Yeah, to point and laugh at.

[@VegetabIeMan]

Fucking guy retired for two years in his middle 30s bc he was burnt out making Gears of War. Should of left it that way

[@x_data_x]

I’ve met him at an industry party, he was a massive douche. Took about 2 seconds to realize it too.

[@splish8869]

for me, what really killed my interest game was the way blazinski acted in interviews. sure he's a talented developer with a history of working on projects players really like, and this game seemed to be a fun blend of movement and crazy abilities, but the attitude he presented in what appeared to be most of this games promotion outside of proper trailers was just not appealing to me, especially since I don't have any personal history with his prior work; he talked about this game as if it was a 'better overwatch or call of duty', two games I was either interested in for a short moment, or not at all; and released the game into a market that was already done with arena shooters, currently interested in objective shooters, about to move on to battle royals, and was growing tired of non-existent artistic identity beyond a futuristic, slightly gritty style. and then there was watching him get mad that the market didn't appreciate his work

[@mohamedsalmoosawe5314]

shame this game was left like that, its was such an amazing game and way better than any shooter there is now

[@atziluth5198]

But it didn't just end there. A Lawbreakers 2.0 community still exists

[@ekxdee9707]

Lawbreakers2.0 community?? Pls elaborate is there something im missing out on lol

[@justxander1656]

Unpopular opinion but when I got to play this game it was honestly pretty fun got really sad when it got shut down

[@Aaron-bj3wt]

i heard about the game a little while ago, maybe after launch or something, i wanted to get into it, and since i was young, the price tag is what made me not able to play it. that and not being on xbox made me really sad, because at the time, it was the type of game i was looking for, and not being able to play it sucked

[@bigbananananana1581]

God i loved lawBreakers it was so much fun :(

[@Jeffxblack]

I was soo hyped for this game when it came out and still kinda smile when I see it in my library

[@Juice8767]

I was interested in this one as I was obsessed with TitanFall 2 and wanted more highflying shooters to play but I usually wait a bit for reception before grabbing a new game and it didn’t take long to realize that nobody was playing it. I personally dig arena shooters and don’t have any interest at all in battle royal styled games but that could just be a generation thing, none of my nephews or nieces play shooters other than Fortnite. Of course my nephew did just ask my sister the other day to record him eating a whole meal so he could post it to his TikTok which made no sense to me so… maybe I’m just out of touch.

[@cyphre]

The gravity stuff was the weird pick in the game. During the beta, it wasn't at all a key point, except at certain map points that could be activated sometimes. Didn't really feel like the point of the game, but then their marketing shifted to heavily promoting the zero gravity aspect. This, to me, is part of where it all started to falter, because it definitely wasn't a key feature of the core game itself to start with, just an extra feature.

[@GoblinSlayerZach]

Had it come to Xbox, I’d had bought a copy simply because it was tied to Cliff. I lived off the games he worked on.

[@TomahAwkDJ7]

So sad that this game didnt work out, it had cool style and the gameplay felt so good.

[@charliealvarado9177]

Pro: a game by Cliff Blezinski Con: a game by Cliff Blezinski

[@MythosRealm]

Lawbreakers was an absolutely insanely good game to anyone who took the time to get to learn it. Some of my fondest gaming memories were playing that game. For anyone who used to play on EU servers - I was CODEINE, the Titan player. I miss you guys.

[@rustyshackleford2605]

A hero shooter needs distinct heroes with unique weapons and styles. Lawbreaker characters just felt like generic Daz characters in generic sci-fi suites using generic sci-fi weapons. There are a lot of good games coming out and this one just didn't stand out.

[@Hrisovalantis92]

He didnt want to make a class based fps. All the media and pleople thought that it was one because it came out the same time with overwatch. Generally should have so much better marketing and change realese date. Overwatcher buried 3 other big games when it came out.

[@elnoone9893]

Lawbreakers was actually amazing, the low player base , laggy connections and poor optmization doomed the game, i played 200hours when it released and gameplay wise was fun, chaotic and had the fundamentals to be incredible, Blazinski its a genius

[@theshriekingpenguin836]

Found Blazinski's secret alt account

[@ValentinoMarino11]

Lies, no one played it :p

[@Jereonn]

pretty nuts to realize the impact of Overwatch when pretty much every other game that tried to compete with them got obliterated & years later games like Valorant and Apex thrive upon a lot of concepts inspired by Overwatch. Would certainly be interesting to see a video on this

[@Anjula321]

remember battleborn and gigantic? :') they were good games but never stood a chance. only paladins survived to this day.

[@lucavalente6620]

The old *insert name*killer never worked look at all the WoW, halo, cod killer and what was their fate.

[@joandarc441]

Look at team fortress 2 they survived even Gabe newell knows

[@ejrasmussen]

Lawbreakers was so fun, I think if they had continued with a free to play model it would have been a much different story.

[@MikeRetroModz]

Honestly if they just had made the game Free to play, Worked up the U.I a to be a little better and start selling packs for skins they would probably making millions right now, so this a prime example of how being greedy actually is a backwards move and backstabs you in the end, Games like Apex, Valorant and Fortnite Are free and make SO much money through selling skins, Why would you pay for a game like Lawbreakers when all of those other options are free? It really sucks how Dumb Boss Key were since the gameplay was so good, I had so much fun playing this.. I wish it would have some kind of a revival.

[@jeremiasazcona9159]

It always makes me sad when an arena shooter dies out, but with Lawbreakers, i kinda saw it coming.

[@craneum123]

Genuinely still livid to this day that this game is gone forever. I think in terms of actual gameplay it blew any other hero shooter out the water that was on the market at the time. Ive never been able to enjoy overwatch or paladins like i was able to enjoy this game, the zero G didnt feel like some random last minute gimmick they chucked in, it really did give the game a whole new feel that I havent been able to get since. God I miss it, I miss zipping around as wraith sticking people with the ballistic knife and blowing them up.

[@placebo7869]

I really don't think this game was an arena FPS because there's too much emphasis on classes and not really any pickups if I remember right, but I won't knock it too much since it was a fun game. That said I didn't buy the game and warned my friends not to as well since I smelled blood in the water. The game just didn't have the backing or inspiration to make it in such a tough market. The biggest thing that keeps so many of the biggest FPS games intact is accessibility, that's just how it is for any game past a certain popularity threshold. If they were ok with being a smaller game, they could have had that. But Cliff shot for the stars and missed, having no game instead of a small and dedicated fanbase that could grow over time.

[@jitspoe]

LawBreakers was, by far, the most fun I've ever had playing or making a game. Other titles I've worked on were miserable to playtest and did well. LawBreakers had devs literally running to the playtest lab, yet flopped. We certainly aren't in the best timeline. :(

[@LaurenBleszinski]

I miss LawBreakers too! I loved hanging out with you and all the other devs at Bosskey for playtests! Great team, environment, and energy. Just bad timeline for sure. :(

[@Asianware]

I miss this game so much...

[@billytran3692]

I respect Cliff. Man spoke the raw truths and took care of his crew as best he could while trying to maintain ideals. Wish things worked out, but competition and the complexity of the onboarding process took its toll. When things were clearly in the shitter they went for that slapdash Hail Mary of battle royale but even before then he set up severance packages for everyone instead of doing that shit where you don’t tell your employees they don’t have a job day-of.

[@jatoac]

Cliff said it best... bad timing, bad marketing. this sums it up nicely. Lawbreakers should have released f2p on all major platforms but it is what it is. It's sad, because Lawbreakers was a good game.

[@itsraventm]

look idk how many people here actually played this game, but before its release and before the dev/marketing problems arose, it was genuinely a ton of fun. people say the market saturation was a problem but it was nothing like OW or csgo if you played, id honestly say it was closest to titanfall. ive never liked hero shooters but i actually found it pretty fun and im sad the marketing and the developer shot their golden goose in the face with their bs

[@OdysseyHome-Gaming]

Overwatch overshadowed allot of games that year like battleborn and paladins. Was really sad. 😥

[@ArcGG]

i enjoyed this game for the most part! it was fun and i even got followed by the devs at one point but it really did just drop out of existence it had potential :/

[@Sunnyside845]

I miss this game more then any other I’ve ever played. By far one of the best games everrrr

[@VexGamingTV]

Was one of my favorite FPS games. Even got a personalized email from Cliff because I was in the top 5 players

[@xod851]

i remember playing it when it went free on steam is was actually pretty fun

[@s10th83]

Some dev plz bring this game back

[@inexperiencedknife]

That game was so good. Super fast pace and pure adrenaline. If they didn't give up on it to make that battle royale I think it would have found its player base.

[@Notester82]

Nice video! Would've been nice if Radical Heights (battle royale game created by Boss Key Productions after Lawbreakers didn't do too well) was mentioned when battle royale's rise as a genre came up, but that's alright considering that the video's mostly about Lawbreakers (still interesting that they had went and worked on that instead of maintaining Lawbreakers). Plus I didn't realize there was more to Lawbreakers than just being written off as an Overwatch clone!

[@MrDjBanza]

they CLEARLY tried to imitate a lot from overwatch (especially the UI) and only verbally tried to distance themselves from it. Also Unreal Tournament had LAN play and anyone can host a server which makes in immortal compared to the trash model they went with, going with the a top 5 worst game publishers of all time

[@PedroMiguel-zv3fj]

Much like other niche genres I believe arena shooters have their place, and fans deserve a cool modern game they can play as a staple, I truly hope some developer will do this fan base justice with some banger f2p game or something in the future, it will make them money but probably won't explode into popularity and become a giant of the market, at least not right now, Valorant, CSGO, R6Siege and Fortnite are still the leaders in the market and that ain't changing anytime soon

[@FranciscoFJM]

The only game that survived the Overwatch comparisons is Paladins.

[@projectanmu4546]

lawbreakers was one of my fav games, i honestly was sad when it went away, my friend and me loved to play it

[@huyphan7825]

"What are you gonna do, bankrupt me?" -Man who went bankrupt, 2017

[@kingpoki1954]

lawbreakers was really fun i was really sad when they closed it down

[@yahlibar6832]

I loved this game so much… such a shame they had to ruin it for themselves and for us……

[@plasmapsychosis5771]

Lawbreakers is still the one game that I always think about when I can't find anything I want to play. No other game made me so hungry to keep playing, feeling my steady improvement as I figured out techniques and character interactions. I truly believe that if Boss Key had put more emphasis on monetizing a F2P game with interesting cosmetics/a battle pass, the game would still be alive. Perhaps not super popular, but alive. Cliff also seems good at killing whatever he touches, so I guess Lawbreakers was truly doomed from the start. A damn shame. A god-damned shame.

[@tibbers2822]

This game was actually so fun too bad it failed. Could’ve been something great

[@demometalico8074]

Arena shooter could return to the big stage if it has somethings that people like, maybe a fun and interactive mechanic that is easy to pick up and scale on time and dedication like bunny hop from quake, and constant updates to keep players interested.

[@wizzzer1337]

I think some development team should take over the project, because Lawbreakers is actually unironically freaking awesome and deserves a second life.

[@shanesmith4170]

Oof. At one point there was an add for Evolved running while Chris was talking about the game.

[@ManectricReturns]

I feel like at the time, everyone hated Cliff and thought he was a huge asshole, therefore no one bought into his game. We wanted to see the game die.

[@magicjohnson3121]

He still is hated

[@BombShockGaming]

This game was great. I played the shit out of it (113 hours in the short time it was up) and I was really sad when it died. It didn't run super well on most PCs, but it was a great time. I really think it could've been a success if they just had more time with it. I wish it could somehow be brought back, there's nothing really like it right now.

[@MekaniQ]

I'm currently starting a Hero Based Arena Shooter. I might seem stupid here, but I love everything based on movement and awesome hero mechanics. I felt like this game could work well. Kinda a shame It didn't. I wish these type of games were back.

[@Mxsfit11Six]

I remember playing the beta on this game on PS4. It's still displayed in my library lol

[@drsherifff]

Woah that blicynzki guy seems like a... Meh person

[@dieptrieu6564]

That's what happened when you let fame get to your head.

[@jon962-g9w]

Their biggest mistake was to not pivot to a battle royal with the lawbreakers assets, they would have become Apex Legends before Apex Legends

[@randomcharacter6501]

This. Even Fortnite wasn't originally a BR.

[@keltheskeleton]

Titanfall 2 recently got 'Northstar Client' mod to enable peer to peer servers, one can hope the Lawbreakers community could maybe one day make something similar.