Boss Key Productions, the studio headed up by former Gears of War stalwart Cliff Bleszinski, currently has all hands at the pump for development on LawBreakers, the physics-defying shooter set to launch later this year.
As production reaches a head, Boss Key has confirmed plans to ditch free-to-play in favor of a premium business model, but did later caution that “North America will likely offer [microtransactions] at some point–just not anything game-affecting.” Much like Gearbox’s Battleborn, that would indicate said in-game purchases will be limited to cosmetic items so as not to upset the balance of the shooter.
“As the game continued to take shape, we realised free-to-play wasn’t the right fit for what we’re building,” said Bleszinski. “LawBreakers is a competitive game at heart and that means balance is a big priority to me, my team, and our community. Using a digital premium model helps ensure an even playing field by giving fans access to every available role without any barriers.”
Tentatively on course for a summer launch, LawBreakers is primed to lock horns with a wave of competition – Overwatch and the aforementioned Battleborn, to name but two – and this partially influenced the studio’s decision to drop free-to-play.
“Being constantly compared to the current slew of colourful shooters on the market made us realise we needed to stand out from the crowd. We decided to take a step back and explore how we could dial up the maturity in LawBreakers, going back to our original vision. The new look and feel embraces the innovative and vertical nature of our game elevated by violence, intensity and competition.”
Boss Key’s PC shooter Lawbreakers is poised to launch in the summer.
