Earlier this year, LawBreakers publisher Nexon had to cut their losses and declared that they were writing off LawBreakers. High expectations at for the game led extremely disappointing sales numbers and a dismal attach rate as the game’s life continued. While we don’t have specific numbers on the PS4 player base, the PC version often sees less than 10 players in any given day. During its peak, LawBreakers never broke 8,ooo concurrent players, a bleak number that didn’t bode well for the longevity of the online competitive experience.
Breaking four months of silence, Boss Key Productions issued a blog post finally admitting that the game failed to find the footing they had hoped it would. Without a strong attach rate, the studio is unable to sustain the game in the manner that they had initially hoped to. Addressing the possibility of pivoting to a free-to-play model, they indicate this would take publisher backing, which they no longer have.
It’s not completely over for LawBreakers though. The studio doesn’t want the last three and a half years of work on the game to go to waste, saying that they are “determined to give this game the second life it deserves.” Until that time, however, Boss Key will be moving on to new projects with “fresh creative leaders.” The game wasn’t bad at all, as pointed out by our review. It just failed to find a strong footing in a world with Overwatch, Call of Duty, Titanfall, PUBG, and Fortnite. LawBreakers will continue to be supported in its current state for the dozen or so of you that want to hop on and attempt to find an active game.
Concluding the post on a high note shows an eagerness for Boss Key’s next game. “We have been working on something new and we can’t wait to share more about it! It’s a passion project that we’re in complete control of,” the post says. What would you like to see next from Boss Key? Do you want to see LawBreakers get a shot in the arm and a second life in the future?
[Source: Boss Key]
lawbreakers excited
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Why You Should Be Excited for LawBreakers
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It Brought Cliffy B Out of Retirement
Cliff Bleszinski was understandably pretty jaded with the games industry after spending his whole adult life in it, and once he retired many thought it would be for good. He still had a desire to create, though, and LawBreakers is the result of that. It's his first multiplayer-focused first-person shooter since his Unreal Tournament days, and if that doesn't get you excited then I don't know what will.
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Innovative Gravity Mechanics
It's almost cliché at this point to have maneuverability as a selling point, but while most shooters are adding jetpacks, LawBreakers is allowing players to defy gravity. Other games might allow players to move around, but LawBreakers really takes it to the next level. There's a level of depth to just the movement alone that other shooters rarely have.
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Four Unique Modes
There'll be four modes in the multiplayer shooter when it releases, and each of them put a different spin on combat. Uplink, Blitzball (not that one), Turf War, and Overcharge all have different rules to learn, and were a blast in the beta.
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Joy of Learning
As I previously wrote about, one of the things I enjoyed most about Boss Key's shooter is that it feels genuinely refreshing in a genre filled with retreads. No matter what shooters you may have played in the past, everyone is starting from level one here. There's a ton of concepts to grasp, and figuring them out is part of the fun.
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5v5 Combat
All of the multiplayer modes in LawBreakers are five-on-five. It's the perfect balance between having a enough players that action is always happening, but small enough that true teamwork can really be implemented. While games started to go in the direction of "bigger is better" for multiplayer, we're seeing developers figure out that smaller matches can be just as satisfying.
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Fast-Paced Action
If you're like me, and grew up playing PC shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament, then a lot of today's shooters feel pretty slow in comparison. That definitely isn't the case here, as the action in LawBreakers is fast-paced and frenetic. It's rare for an arena shooter on console to really nail that feel, but Boss Key managed to do just that.
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Overcharge
All four of the shooter's modes are fun to play, but Overcharge is a really interesting spin on capture-the-flag. Players have to take a battery and charge it at their base, but that same battery (and the charge it has obtained) can be stolen back by the opposing team. It paves the way for some incredible comebacks.
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Nine Roles to Master
There are nine roles to learn in LawBreakers, with two characters in each type. That means there are a ton of skills that players will have to master. The nine roles are: Assassin, Battle MEdic, Enforcer, Gunslinger, Harrier, Juggernaut, Titan, Vanguard, and Wrath.
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Team Experience
This isn't a deathmatch shooter. Every game type is centered around fulfilling your role, and completing the mode's objective. In an era of multiplayer shooters that largely are based around shooting everything that moves (which is admittedly still fun), LawBreakers provides a different type of experience. It's a more focused game that'll require teams to work as a cohesive unit.
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It's Cheap
Like Hellblade, LawBreakers will only cost $29.99 when it releases August 8. That's a dope price point that will ensure that more players will be able to afford the shooter, and it should lead to servers being filled with active players for the foreseeable future.
