The developers of LawBreakers have had to finally admit defeat, and have announced that they are moving on to new projects. The game, which had its creation spearheaded by former Gears of War guru and Boss Key Productions studio founder Cliff Bleszinski, showed a lot of potential through its adherence to fast-paced, fun shooter mechanics of days gone and a resistance to some of the more controversial business practices that have seeped into the industry of late.

However, in spite of the early promise shown by game trailers, LawBreakers truly struggled to find an audience upon release. In spite of a mildly positive reception by those who played it, the game failed to make a dent in the market, leading to some truly disappointing concurrent user numbers. As such, questions were asked as to the purpose of a multiplayer shooter without a strong community of players.

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Now, it appears as though Boss Key Productions has had to move on to other things. In an update over at the Boss Key Productions website, the studio issued a statement that many of the game's players had been expecting for some time. Effectively, development is going to stop on LawBreakers, and although the game's current state will continue to be supported, it looks as though the studio is going to be moving on to other projects.

"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," said the developer in a statement. Boss Key advised that it will "continue to support the game in its current state," but that the studio is going to be moving on to something different altogether - a "passion project" that Boss Key apparently has control over.

Although this means the end for LawBreakers, the studio does suggest that the game could have some kind of revival at some point, advising that the "studio is determined to give this game the second life it deserves." Although this could potentially be at the hands of a free-to-play model, Boss Key does advise that this may take some time to implement, and would no doubt be a disappointing move for the team given their switch to a more traditional business model during the development process.

Exactly why LawBreakers failed will be a matter of much debate among fans, whether down to being not quite good enough or simply misunderstood, but for some it may be a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. Although developed by an industry veteran in Bleszinski, it was a new IP from an unknown developer, jumping into a market that was dominated by such prominent games as Overwatch. With LawBreakers lacking a unique selling point found by the likes of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, unfortunately it may well have just been squeezed out of the market.

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Source: Boss Key Productions