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Recommended Reading: The fate of Facebook's free internet project
What happened to Facebook's grand plan to wire the world? Jessi Hempel, Wired For years, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted the company's Internet.org initiative that sought to bring connectivity to everyone in the world. It was presented an ambitious humanitarian effort, but things didn't go according to plan. Wired tells the story of what happened to the project following criticism and bans from local governments.
‘Lawbreakers’ studio Boss Key shuts down
Boss Key Productions, the studio founded by Unreal and Gears of War designer Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski, has shut down. The small company spent years making the competitive shooter Lawbreakers, but when that game fizzled, the studio sped out the game show-esque shooter Radical Heights to tap into the battle royale craze. Apparently, that wasn't enough to save the studio, Bleszinski wrote in a public letter on Twitter.
Cliff Bleszinski's 'LawBreakers' is in a death spiral
LawBreakers, the gravity-defying shooter from Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, is on borrowed time. The game has never had a huge player-base, even after doling out new game modes and offering up free-play weekends. Developer Boss Key took to its blog to say as much. "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," the post reads.
‘Lawbreakers’ adds new content despite few players
Despite a player count that's bottomed out at ten people in the last week, Lawbreakers is forging ahead with a content release that includes two new maps and the launch of competitive mode, Boss League. The number of players has been reliably under a hundred every night, but studio Boss Key Productions is keeping its promise to continue on its roadmap of DLC.
Play 'Lawbreakers' for free on PC this weekend
It hasn't been two months since team shooter Lawbreakers launched in early August and the game is inviting players to try it for free on PC this weekend, starting today. That's likely because the PC playerbase is dismal, peaking at 161 players total over the last 24 hours according to Steam's charts. But if you play and like it, the game's studio Boss Key Productions is knocking 25 percent off the cover price to keep you onboard.
'LawBreakers' open beta runs all weekend on PC and PS4
We've had a few cracks at LawBreakers, the futuristic cops vs. robbers game from Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and Boss Key Productions, but now anyone can play on PC and PS4. An open beta test runs until 10 AM ET Monday morning, which should be plenty of time to see if it's a worthy competitor to the likes of Overwatch. There are some new wrinkles in this beta test like direct integration with Twitch and the PS4 version is tweaked for better play on the console, so go ahead and dive in (after checking out a few tutorials) before the game officially launches on August 8th.
Snipers, tanks and turrets don't exist in 'Lawbreakers'
First-person, team-based shooters like Overwatch, Monday Night Combat and Team Fortress 2 all share a collection of common tropes. Players typically compete to move payloads or hold objectives, with teams built from a collection of classic character types: medic, tank, soldier and sniper. That's not how it works in Lawbreakers, the upcoming character-based team shooter from Boss Key. According to lead designer Dan Nanni, the genre's conventions made the game feel hamstrung and slow. "The first thing we wound up doing," he said, "was throw all the rules away. Just throw them all away."
Low-grav shooter ‘LawBreakers’ comes out August 8th for $30
LawBreakers, the low-gravity team shooter made by Boss Key Productions, just got a release date for both its PC and recently-announced PS4 versions: August 8th, retailing for $30. But before then, the game will have another beta (sadly, still only for desktop) starting at noon ET on June 28th.
'LawBreakers' makes the leap to PlayStation 4
LawBreakers isn't confined to the PC any longer: The game is also heading to PlayStation 4, developer Boss Key Productions announced today. LawBreakers comes from Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, and it's a rapid-fire, five-on-five, first-person shooter set in a low-gravity, sci-fi world.
'Lawbreakers' prepares to take on 'Overwatch' with closed beta
Lawbreakers, the new team-based shooter from Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski and Boss Key Productions, is inching closer to launch. Its first closed beta starts today and runs through March 19th.
Everything you missed from 'The Game Awards'
Each year that Geoff Keighley's Game Awards distances itself from its SpikeTV past, it gets subsequently less embarrassing to watch. And without a doubt, The Game Awards 2016 was the best show yet. Couldn't watch the stream? Well, that's too bad, but we've got you covered. Below you'll find a list of the night's big winners in addition to all the trailers that made their world premieres onstage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. There were a few emotional moments onstage as well, including Ryan Green accepting the Games for Impact award for That Dragon, Cancer; Keighley presenting his friend Hideo Kojima with a statue for Industry Icon and Nolan North throwing striking voice actors under the bus during his acceptance speech for best performance.
Does the world need another first-person, team-based shooter?
"I'm not the only asshole who had this idea a few years ago," Cliff Bleszinski says in between sips of a sugar-free Red Bull. He's perched in the lounge area of his studio's E3 meeting space, on the other side of a thin wall where a dozen journalists and internet influencers are playing his latest game, a team-based shooter called LawBreakers. Every now and then, the players beyond the wall suddenly wail and clap as a game comes to a dramatic close. Bleszinski is talking about the market for online, first-person, team-based shooters -- a niche genre that, in mid 2016, is on the verge of oversaturation. Overwatch just came out, and it's been a monstrous hit for Activision Blizzard. It dominates the front page of Twitch, and there are already plans to transform it into a truly competitive, esports-focused title. Other similar games, such as Gearbox's Battleborn or Epic Games' Paragon, are also on the market, but they can't compare in terms of player numbers or hype.
Play futuristic cops vs robbers in the 'LawBreakers' alpha
If you can't get enough of online brawls by way of Blizzard's Overwatch and Gearbox Software's Battleborn, there's a third contender out there. It's called LawBreakers, and it's the brainchild of Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski. The arena-based multiplayer shooter from developer Boss Key Productions is now offering registration for alpha testing to anyone who wants to get down and start breakin' the law, breakin' the law.
'Gears of War' creator's 'LawBreakers' is a timed Steam exclusive
It turns out Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski hasn't abandoned PC gamers after years of making Gears of War games for the Xbox 360. His new shooter LawBreakers will be a Steam exclusive "at launch." What's more, the game where humanity destroyed The Moon isn't free-to-play any longer -- but it won't cost $60, either. Why the change of heart? "As the game continued to take shape, we realized free-to-play wasn't the right fit for what we're building," Bleszinski says in a canned press release quote.
Here's our first look at Cliff Bleszinski's 'LawBreakers' in action
We've already been introduced to the world of Lawbreakers, the next shooter from the Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, but now we've got our first look at some actual gameplay. And while the science behind the game's setting may be suspect (it's a fantastical take on Earth after we've blown up the moon), the game's mechanics seem solid. It's a class-based multiplayer shooter, similar to Titanfall and Team Fortress, that will also be free-to-play on a variety of platforms (we still don't have specifics). The trailer introduces some of those classes (and their respective characters): there's the swift Assassin Kitsune, who can double-jump; Breacher, a gunner who has the unique ability to shoot behind him; and a jetpack-wielding Skirmisher named Maverick. One character, a Titan named Cronos, can also rocket-jump, bringing back fond memories of Bleszinski's work on Unreal Tournament. Judging from this trailer, Lawbreakers looks like plenty of other shooters, but its unique take on character classes and Bleszinski's pedigree make it one to keep an eye on.
The shaky science of shattering the moon in 'LawBreakers'
LawBreakers is the new, free shooter from Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and it features a bold premise: Humans accidentally explode the moon, which leads to catastrophic earthquakes that nearly split the world in two. Plus, the event leaves pockets of low gravity scattered across the Earth -- including in the Grand Canyon, which ends up surrounded by giant, floating rocks. It's a wild idea that, at first glance, appears to be heavier on fiction than science. So, we asked Dr. Phil Plait, a popular astronomer and science writer known as Bad Astronomer, what would happen to the Earth if humans accidentally shattered the moon. Plait responded via email with the following intro: "I watched the trailer. Yeah, nope."
New game from 'Gears of War' creator breaks the moon
LawBreakers is not a post-apocalyptic shooter. It is a shooter. It does star a group of Marine-like soldiers out to gun down people in the name of justice and it does take place in the future. But creator Cliff Bleszinski is adamant that this isn't a standard futuristic, kill-streak kind of game. As the mastermind behind Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, he knows all about those. Instead, LawBreakers takes place in a post-catastrophe world: Human experiments on the moon cause it to shatter, which triggers devastating earthquakes and breaks gravity in certain spots. Humanity rebuilds, bigger and better than ever, and then violent gangs begin to attack the new world. The LawBreakers are deployed to fight the gangs, using super-human supplements and special maneuvers made possible by the low-gravity zones.
