LawBreakers' rocky launch "very humbling" - Bleszinski

Boss Key Productions online shooter LawBreakers is off to a rocky start, but company co-founder Cliff Bleszinski isn't about to write it off just yet. Amid reports of low concurrent users on PC and long wait times for matchmaking on PlayStation 4 just a month after launch, the developer spoke with GameSpot about the plan to grow both the game and its community.

"It's a marathon. Not a sprint," Bleszinski said. "We're going to keep iterating, keep working on it. At the end of the day, I didn't want to make the exact same archetypes that everybody else did. I wanted to make a game that was first and foremost a shooter for shooter players."

Bleszinski pointed to Digital Extremes' Warframe as an example of a shooter that started with a modest playerbase and core offering, but built on both until it became a lynchpin success for the studio. Part of Boss Key's plan to make that happen involves tweaking the marketing.

"We need to do what we can to let people know this is a really sweaty palm type of experience that can hopefully lend itself to eSports," Bleszinski said. "But you know, I have to keep this game alive, first and foremost. I can be very cocky and very brash on social media. And realising that, you know, we have a fledgling player base. It's been very humbling for me. I'm going to continue to iterate on this game, continue to add to it. And try to be less of a dick, honestly."

The developer acknowledged some mistakes were made, but said the studio is working hard to fix them. Launching without Team Deathmatch was one such error that Boss Key is already working to correct, and it plans to add new maps, features, a new character class, and a ranked mode as well.