Gears of War designer returns to video games with Boss Key Productions

By Adam Rosenberg July 5, 2014

gears war designer returns video games boss key productions — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Cliff Bleszinski, former lead designer on Epic Games’ Gears of War series, has teamed up with Guerilla Games co-founder Arjan Brussee to launch Boss Key Productions. There’s no formal announcement just yet, but there’s an official website and documents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that give legal life to the name. The sparse website contains only a newsletter sign-up and a handful of social links to Twitter’s handles, for Bleszinski, Boss Key, and something called “Blue Streak,” which is believed to be the company’s first project.

To see the USPTO filing, follow the link in the previous paragraph, click the first option “Basic Word Mark Search (New User)” and type “boss key productions” into the Search Term field. The document names Brussee as Boss Key’s Chief Operations Officer, and his re-tweet of Boss Key’s first official tweet seemingly confirms his involvement in the new venture.

Bleszinski’s been relatively quiet since he left Epic Games in late 2012 to take a break, popping up only in occasional interviews and soundbites considering the state of the industry but engaging very little with the idea of what he might work on in the future. That changed after Bleszinski announced in a June 30 tweet that he was “coming out of retirement.”

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

There’s yet to be any official comment from Boss Key, which launched its website on July 4, but Bleszinski referred to the new business as a “lean, agile, fun startup in Raleigh, N.C.” in a statement given to Polygon.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

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