Lawbreakers 2.0 fan project makes Cliff Blezinski’s ‘dead’ FPS playable again after six years

videogameschronicle.com:

An unofficial fan-made launcher for Lawbreakers has made the game playable again for the first time in six years.

Developed by the now-defunct developer Boss Key Productions and directed by former Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, LawBreakers was released in August 2017.

Despite a mostly positive reception from critics, however, the game was shut down just one year later, with a low player count cited as the main reason.

Although Bleszinski made it clear a year ago that he wanted publisher Nexon to bring Lawbreakers back, nothing official has been announced.

Instead, a group of fans have released Lawbreakers 2.0, an unofficial launcher for the game. Bleszinski has been linking to the project on X, and interacting with its players on its Discord server.

The new launcher, which makes it clear that it “is not affiliated with Nexon or the Lawbreakers brand in any way, shape or form”, lets players boot the dormat game on Steam and play online multiplayer matches again.

Last year Bleszinski took to X to call on publisher Nexon to open talks about potentially reviving the failed FPS.

Bleszinski revealed that he had discovered that the Lawbreakers IP was still owned by Nexon and called on the company’s CEO to speak with him about it.

Clarifying his intentions in further tweets, Bleszinski said he wasn’t interested in actively creating a new game, but said he’d be willing to consult on any potential revival.

In April 2018, eight months after the game’s release, developer Boss Key released a statement saying: “The fact is, LawBreakers failed to find enough of an audience to generate the funds necessary to keep it sustained in the manner we had originally planned for and anticipated.

“And while a pivot to free-to-play may seem like the easiest change to make, a change of this magnitude takes publishing, planning and resources to do it.”