Cliff Bleszinski Launches New Startup Boss Key Productions with Former EA Exec
posted Sunday Jul 6, 2014 by Nicholas DiMeo
Have you wondered what Cliff Bleszinski has been up to lately? So has the rest of the gaming world. The man who spent 20 years working at Epic Games as a director and designer has been exploring the world since his departure back in 2012. However when pressed, he never really got into detail on what the future held for him. That is until June 30th, when he said on Twitter, "I'm officially coming out of retirement to make video games again." Well, the Internet got busy like it usually does and found out within days what he was up to.
It was discovered on the 4th of July that Bleszinski has formed a new game studio, Boss Key Productions, and he's brought along a pretty good partner. Former EA producer and co-founder of Guerilla Games, Arjan Brussee, is joining in on the venture. The two filed documents with the State of North Carolina to incorporate the business back in April. It's surprising that it took the Internet this long to find out about the new company, considering Epic Games is also based in NC.
At any rate, of course Bleszinski was asked about this new discovery, but he only responded with a pretty general statement.
I find it promising and exciting that there's such interest in what I do next that 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 my professional career.
It should also be noted that on top of the Boss Key website launching on Friday, the company filed documents with the US Patent and Trademark Office on May 30th that details Boss Key producing goods and services that indicate the studio would be making online games, naturally. To be specific, the document says things about "downloadable multi-player interactive computer game programs; computer and video game software; downloadable computer and video game software; downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices; downloadable computer application software in the field of games; interactive computer and video game programs."
What would be the first game to come out of the studio? Well, it might be Project Bluestreak, which has a website that has a countdown timer leading us to July 8th, when Cliff might make the announcement. But he won't speak further on the matter.
I do not comment on rumors and speculation on the birthday of the nation that could allow a game designer to have a fantastic 20 year run at his first studio and then take nearly two years off only to seek out funding and start his new lean, agile, fun startup in Raleigh, N.C.
So for now, we'll have to wait and see, however Tuesday isn't far away. Hopefully we'll see some of those lean, agile and fun things Bleszinski mentioned in the coming months. I can't wait to see what will come out of Boss Key Productions.
