Cliff Bleszinski is starting a new game studio set to be called Boss Key Productions. News reports from VentureBeat and Polygon cite filings with state agencies in North Carolina for a business license and a filing with the USPTO for a trademark on the company name. He also posted to his personal Twitter account that he was emerging from retirement to return to the gaming industry.
I’m officially coming out of retirement to make video games again. Stay tuned here for details in the next 7 days! #DontCallItAComeback
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) June 30, 2014
GamesBeat was able to contact Bleszinski for comment. He said that he was flattered by the interest in his work and around how “people are willing to look up from their Bud Lite and hot dogs and fireworks and continue to talk about what I may be doing next in [his] professional career.”
Bleszinski was an integral team member of Epic Games, acting as the design director for Gears of War and a major player in the initial design of the legendary Unreal series. He worked for Epic for nearly twenty years when the company gained a significant amount of investment. This investment made him and other early members of the Epic team incredibly wealthy and allowed most of them to explore their own avenues.
Imagining the reach of Epic Games is something that is not done easily, as they have created games and game engines that have revolutionized the first-person shooter genre. Also considering the fact that Bleszinski’s touch is found in most of those games makes us really excited about what’s to come from Boss Key Productions. This is still a developing story and we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it in the coming months.
