Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski is eyeing a return to game development — and it won't be PvP

Cliff Bleszinski, the designer behind Gears of War, says he's considering a full-time return to game development eight years after walking away from the industry. The comeback talk comes after a turbulent stretch in his personal life, including a hospitalization for alcoholism in March this year — and it's his sobriety, he says, that reignited his passion for making games.

In a wide-ranging interview with 80 Level's Brian Crecente, Bleszinski opened up about life since shutting down Boss Key Productions in 2018. In that time he wrote an autobiography and produced a Tony Award-winning musical, but games kept pulling him back. He's already dipped a toe in through an advisory role on a horror game called Soul Walker, and that experience seems to have lit the fire. "At the end of the day, I want to create characters and worlds," he told Crecente. "I want to make stuff that people will cosplay and get tattooed on their bodies." He's cagey about specifics — "I'm nowhere near sharing anything specific" — but dropped a cryptic hint about Home Depot and "a full arsenal at every turn," adding that "there's so much more than just chainsaws."

One thing he's ruled out is PvP. Boss Key's two games — the arena shooter LawBreakers and the battle royale Radical Heights — both flopped commercially, and Bleszinski has no appetite to go back to that well. "Good luck to anyone in that space," he said flatly. "I'm more of a fan of PvE these days. Horde mode saved Gears 2, and I believe that space is evergreen because players just want to hop online with friends and shoot some stuff, no frills, no questions asked." It's worth noting this isn't the first time he's floated a comeback — back in 2020 he mentioned wanting to make "a little game," and nothing came of it publicly.

Whether this time is different remains to be seen. Bleszinski himself hedged with a telling metaphor: "hopefully not get pushed into the pool." The chainsaws comment will inevitably fuel speculation about a Gears-adjacent project, and with Pragmata's recent reveal showing there's still a big appetite for that style of third-person action, the timing wouldn't be terrible. For now though, it's all vibes and hints — nothing is confirmed, and Bleszinski is clearly taking it one step at a time.