Cliff Bleszinski‘s next game is coming together after more than a year in beta testing, and when the game finally launches it will do so on more than just the PC.
LawBreakers, a class-based online shooter from developer Boss Key Productions, still doesn’t have a specific release date, but the studio has announced it will launch the game for $30 later this year on both PC as well as PlayStation 4 at the same time. Boss Key is promising to enhance the game for PS4 Pro, and it is planning online tests before releasing the final version on Sony’s console. On both PC and console, buying the game for $30 will get you the whole game as well as any new maps or characters.
“We can confirm that we are coming out on PlayStation 4,” Bleszinski said during a roundtable with reporters. “I cannot tell you how good it feels to actually say this to someone outside the development team because it is the No. 1 question that I’m asked. It shines on PS4. And on PS4 Pro, it’s even better.”
Bleszinski said that the team has worked hard to get the game working on a gampad after building it originally for PC. The studio wants to maintain the game’s skill-based nature, so the designers didn’t want to overly rely on aim-assist or similar tools.
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“It was a challenge,” said Bleszinski. “It required a lot of iteration, but we’ve got it to a really fun place.”
When the game finally does hit PlayStation 4 and PC, LawBreakers will enter a crowded market with a lot of competition. The studio heads say that they are aware of that.
LawBreakers just had another beta over the weekend. Boss Key began closed testing for the PC version in April 2016, and that’s afforded the company a lot of time to figure out what makes its game special. Bleszinski explained that his crew has spent much of the last year digging into each character and designing abilities that make them feel unique. That’s crucial because — as Bleszinski puts it — consumers have a lot of entertainment options vying for their time.
“We always talk about the elephant in the room that is the success of Overwatch — and more power to them because it’s a great game,” said Bleszinski. “I remember sitting with Matt Fischman, one of our star gameplay programmers when Overwatch was just announced. And I remember the look on his face and him going, ‘oh, fuck!’ And I told him, ‘this is a good thing because now we know what not to do.'”
Bleszinski said that just how Unreal, the 1998 shooter from Epic Games that he worked on, defined itself as something that was similar but distinct from Quake, he wants LawBreakers to do that with Overwatch. And now, with the game coming to PS4 as well as PC, more gamers will get a chance to see what that looks like.
