Lawbreakers, the FPS game from Gears of War director Cliff ‘CliffyB’ Bleszinski, could maybe, just maybe, be making a comeback. A multiplayer arena shooter in the style of Valorant, Apex Legends, and Overwatch, Lawbreakers faced tough competition at launch, resulting in the closure of its servers after only one year. Now, as Nexon itself faces a legal battle regarding RPG Dark and Darker, Bleszinski writes to the company pitching the possibility of a revival.
Earlier in April, Bleszinski said he had received a message from his lawyer regarding Lawbreakers, and teased the possibility of further news around the multiplayer game. The former Gears of War developer now confirms that the rights to Lawbreakers are in fact owned by Nexon, the Korean publishing company which handles regional distribution of Final Fantasy XIV, and is currently pursuing legal action against RPG Dark and Darker, owing to claims that it uses assets owned by Nexon itself.
Writing to Nexon’s CEO, Owen Mahoney, Bleszinski pitches the possibility of bringing back Lawbreakers.
“Well, turns out Nexon does own the rights to Lawbreakers,” Bleszinski writes. “Owen Mahoney, how about sliding into my DMs so we can talk about a resurrection?”
In subsequent replies, Bleszinski says that he is “over the whole making games thing,” but that he would consider serving in a non-designer or director role on a possible Lawbreakers revival. “I’m over being CEO and lead designer,” Bleszinski says, “shiz is exhausting. But if a third party wants to resurrect it [Lawbreakers] with Nexon, I’m down for consulting.”
Lawbreakers launched in 2017 and was well-liked by critics (including us) but struggled to find a player base within the emerging and highly competitive arena shooter genre. After battling Fortnite, PUBG, and Overwatch, Lawbreakers closed its servers in September 2018.
Warzone, Apex Legends, and Valorant have since emerged to further populate the multiplayer shooter genre, with Ubisoft also trying to build on the success of Rainbow Six Siege with its new FPS XDefiant.
With a possible Lawbreakers return on the horizon, check out some of the other best upcoming games on their way in the near future. You might also want to try the best battle royale games on PC.