Boss Key Productions

Boss Key Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in April 2014 by Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, formerly of Epic Games, the company developed LawBreakers (2017) and Radical Heights (2018), both of which were commercial failures, effectively leading to the closure of the development team in May 2018.

Boss Key Productions, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedApril 30, 2014 (2014-04-30)
Founders
DefunctMay 14, 2018 (2018-05-14)
FateDissolved
Headquarters
Raleigh, North Carolina
,
US
Key people
Cliff Bleszinski (CEO)
ProductsLawBreakers
Number of employees
65 (2017)

History
Boss Key Productions at the 2016 Game Developers Conference

Boss Key Productions was founded by former Epic Games employees Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 30, 2014.[1][2] The studio's inception and name were officially revealed on July 4, 2014, with Bleszinski and Brussee helming the establishment as chief executive officer and chief operating officer, respectively.[1] Boss Key Productions' first project was LawBreakers, a first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.[3]

Although LawBreakers was received positively following its August 2017 release, it underperformed commercially, leading the team to move on to develop a battle royale game instead of supporting LawBreakers in the long term.[4] Subsequently, Brussee left Boss Key Productions in December 2017, announcing that he had returned to Epic Games to work on an "exciting secret project".[5] The battle royale game, titled Radical Heights, was released in April 2018 as a Steam Early Access title, officially dubbed "X-Treme Early Access".[6] The game was received negatively by some critics, due to its very early state, and described as a mere "cash-in" in the light of the popularity of other battle royale games, such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale.[6]

On May 14, 2018, following the overall under-performance of both LawBreakers and Radical Heights, Bleszinski announced via Twitter that Boss Key Productions had shut down.[7] The studio previously had 65 employees as of September 2017.[8] According to Bleszinski, he did not take a salary for two years in order to pay for his employees so they "could care for their families."[9]

Following the success of the 2014 game Alien: Isolation, Boss Key had been in discussions with 20th Century Fox to make a first-person shooter game set in the Alien franchise, where the player would play as Newt, guided by Ripley, as she fought through xenomorphs in Earth-based labs where they were being studied by the Weyland-Yutani corporation, in a style similar to Half-Life series. However, the project had been shelved as a result of the merger of Fox into Disney.[10]

References
  1. Corriea, Alexa Ray (July 4, 2014). "Cliff Bleszinski creates Boss Key game studio with Guerrilla Games co-founder". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  2. "North Carolina Secretary of State Business Registration Annual Report". North Carolina Secretary of State. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  3. Osborn, Alex (June 12, 2017). "E3 2017: LawBreakers Release Date Announced". IGN. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  4. Crecente, Brian (April 9, 2018). "'Lawbreakers' Studio Boss Key Unveils Battle Royale Game 'Radical Heights'". Variety. Archived from the original on May 2, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  5. Kerr, Chris (December 11, 2017). "Boss Key co-founder Arjan Brussee departs to rejoin Epic Games". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  6. Machkovech, Sam (April 10, 2018). "CliffyB's Radical Heights is a new low for cashing in on the PUBG craze". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  7. Schreier, Jason (May 14, 2018). "Radical Heights Developer Boss Key Games Shuts Down". Kotaku. Archived from the original on May 14, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  8. Makuch, Eddie (September 15, 2017). "Cliff Bleszinski On LawBreakers: "I Have To Keep This Game Alive"". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  9. Lanier, Liz. "Cliff Bleszinski Says He's Not Making Any More Games". Variety. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  10. Billcliffe, James (February 10, 2020). "Cliff Bleszinski's studio was in talks to make an Alien FPS where you played as Newt". VG247. Retrieved February 10, 2020.

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