Cliff Bleszinski announced on twitter Monday afternoon that he has returned from retirement. Bleszinski had a major role in the development of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament and has been retired since October of 2012 when he elected to take a break from game production.
Though he has not specifically stated what his future endeavors will be, he has mentioned that he will share more information soon.
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
Update:
Bleszinski announced the name of his new-found company, Boss Key. He will be teaming up with founder of Guerrilla Games, Arjan Brussee going forward with the company. While no further official details are available yet, it’s a safe bet that they’ll be working on a gritty first-person shooter given both their histories.
Arjan Brussee is most known as the mind behind Playstation’s, Killzone series.
Reddit user, Boreras elaborated on the two’s history:
“Arjan Brussee knows Cliff Bleszinski from when the two of them made Jazz Jackrabbit together as only coder and designer respectively.
Also Brussee was the 3D coder for the first ever 3D demo on pc, go watch that piece of gaming history.”
Update 2:
Per Boss Key’s twitter, Jay Hawkins will be joining the Boss Key team as the Lead Conceptual Artist. Hawkins’ former art style with Gears of War and Unreal Tournament gives an even clearer view of the style of game that Boss Key will be working on.
Check back here and on Pixelpine’s twitter page for more updates.