Cliff Bleszinski the brains and face behind the incredibly popular Gears of War series and an integral part of the Unreal Engine development team has announced that he is leaving Epic Games
Cliff has been part of the Epic for the past 20 years and has worked on such titles as Jazz Jackrabbit, Lost Planet, Unreal Tournament, Shadow Complex, Bulletstorm and obviously the entire Gears of War series.
His departure is made even more shocking as it comes closely after Rod Ferguson left Epic to join Irrational Games leaving Epic with neither of the two big names most closely associated with Gears of War with yet another Gears of War title arriving in the new year.
When Gears was first announced it was marketed as a trilogy and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realise they have decided to extend it due to it’s popularity, however I do wonder if this milking of a series is partly to blame for two of the top Epic people jumping ship or is there another problem at Epic?
Epic makes the majority of their cash from the Unreal Engine which doesn’t require anywhere near the same sort of creativity as Gears of War or Bulletstorm and maybe Rod and Cliff just came to the conclusion that they were not going to be pushed creatively any further.
With them both being substantially wealthy already it wouldn’t really make sense to just sit back and accept payments for doing nothing and maybe that is why they are now heading out to forge new careers?
Whatever the reason it is a sad day indeed to see one of the most loved/hated member of the gaming community announce his resignation.
I personally loved his interaction and headline making attitude, you will be missed Cliff. That is unless you and Rod are about to start your own studio? How about joining West and Zampella at theirs and becoming the bad boy studio of the world?
Last Updated: October 4, 2012