Over the past week, the lead designer of Gears of War, Cliff Bleszinski, made an exciting announcement. He unveiled a new studio, Bosskey Productions, and a free-to-play sci-fi arena shooter that he’s creating with Nexon for PC, tentatively titled Bluestreak.aturally, this sparked a flurry of questions from the public.
To address these inquiries and concerns, Bleszinski decided to host a Reddit AMA, offering a platform for fans to have their queries answered publicly for the entire internet to witness.
Firstly, the topic of the free-to-play model came up. Despite the success of games like League of Legends, the term “free-to-play” often raises eyebrows in the public eye. So, why did Bleszinski choose to enter this potentially controversial arena? “Anyone can simply jump in and enjoy the game,” Bleszinski explained. He also emphasized that Bluestreak will be purely skill-based. “I’m firmly determined to avoid a Pay To Win scenario. Since this is a shooter, I want a player who loves the game but doesn’t want to spend a dime to be able to take down the wealthy player who’s spent a fortune to acquire all the best gear.”
Beyond that, Bleszinski couldn’t confirm whether microtransactions will be part of Bluestreak’s economic model. “We’ll conduct experiments, make adjustments, fine-tune, and most importantly, build a positive community around the game as we develop it,” he stated.
Figuring out how to strike a balance between monetization and fun is one of the crucial reasons why Bleszinski decided to team up with Nexon, a company he was initially skeptical about. “When Nexon reached out, I laughed. ‘The f****** Maple Story guys?!'” the Gears developer recalled. “But then I met Min Kim, the president of Nexon US, and Owen Mahoney, who oversees all of Nexon. I saw the direction they were headed in – Brian Reynold’s new game, Robotaki’s project, Splash Damage, and so on. I spoke with all these western developers working with them.”
“They all had nothing but positive things to say about collaborating with Nexon. They mentioned that Nexon allows you to create the game you envision and offers assistance when it comes to monetization.”
“When your fellow developers give such a glowing endorsement of a publishing partner, you have reason to trust them.”
So, that explains the model and the publisher. But what about the platform? Why PC? “PC is where the discussions typically take place, where the community congregates, and it has a vast global audience,” Bleszinski responded. He also pointed out that a game needs to be optimized for the platform, offering a wide range of options for players with diverse setups. “To reach that global audience, your game must look spectacular on high-end systems while also running smoothly on less powerful devices.”
And what about Bluestreak’s story? In Bleszinski’s previous games, the narrative often seemed like an afterthought. However, with his new studio, the legendary designer is taking a bold step and attempting something different. Could this mean a new emphasis on story for the creator of the iconic chainsaw bayonets? “There will be a focus on story, but not in the traditional sense,” Bleszinski clarified. “Weapons will have associated manufacturing corporations, players will have their own lore and history, and the world will feel rich and lived-in. We also aim to produce live-action shorts quarterly to provide more insights into the universe beyond the game. When you’re working on a sci-fi IP, you need to bring as much of the fictional elements to life through various mediums (and with lore) to make people care about Plasma Rifle 3 or Player X.”
Elsewhere, Bleszinski mentioned that Boss Key currently has around a dozen staff members, including former employees from Epic, Ubisoft, and Activision. “The goal is to have 15-20 people in the first year,” he clarified, noting that the priority is to “discover the fun first.” After that, he hopes to expand the team to 60-70 members with “a significant amount of outsourcing.”
That’s pretty much all we know for now. It seems that Bluestreak is still in its early stages – in fact, Bleszinski mentioned that the developers haven’t even decided on which engine to use. Nevertheless, the Gears lead appears highly confident about the direction the project is taking. To top it all off, he released the first official piece of Bluestreak concept art (shown above), putting an end to our excuse of using covers from that Martin Lawrence movie.
