Share this:

It’s no secret by now that possibly one of the biggest video game failures in recent memory is BossKey Productions’ LawBreakers. Not only did it fail to capture a big crowd at launch, but its playerbase on PC dropped to zero mere months after release!

While video game fans might each have their own explanation as to why the game died, it’s another thing to hear it from the developers’ perspective. In a video interview, Former Senior Gameplay developer for LawBreakers Nathan Wulf sits down and talks about the game and why it didn’t succeed. One of the chief reasons he thinks? It’s mostly due to the “arena shooter” genre (ie: Unreal Tournament, Quake) not being as “widely accepted” by gamers compared to generations ago.

YouTuber Lion HeartZ talks to Wulf, and had the following question for the developer.

Q: So you know, half AAA price for a multiplayer game; it had a bunch of maps, it had classes, it had content at launch. But I think you could make the argument that the barrier to entry for the player base in price as well as in gameplay definitely hurt it in the long run. Do you think LawBreakers would have succeeded better if you guys have chosen to stick to more traditional gameplay loop styles?

Wulf: I think that could have helped. I fear that…(it hurts me to say this), but the fast-paced, more arena style shooter genre is just not (a) widely accepted gameplay style. Like, if you take a look at the games that are popular now and they have very slow gameplay. Like, PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) and Fortnite, and stuff. I mean, they’re somewhat fast as far as character movements goes, but the overall pacing of the game, you could spend 20 minutes and never even find someone to shoot at. Or something like LawBreakers, like, literally every second and every bullet you fire is critical to being able to have a chance to win.

Wulf also adds that Cliff’s thinking (Cliff Blezinski, BossKey Productions big boss) was, every 10 years or so, we kind of cycle through the genre of games, and uses the current trend of World War 1 shooters being the “in” thing now compared to modern shooters the past few years as an example. His (Blezinksi) idea was LawBreakers would catch the “beginning of the wave” right back into arena shooters. Wulf doesn’t seem to agree with this, as he cited other games were released in the arena shooter genre, and they too failed to generate any buzz.

Check out the complete interview below, it’s a hefty 44-minute chat, but it’s an enlightening one and gives us further insight into why LawBreakers failed. The arena style shooter discussion starts around the

Do you agree with Wulf’s answers? Is it due to the arena shooter genre not being popular enough? Or is it mostly due to the game’s quality itself? Or maybe the amount of competition it faced is to blame?

Let us know what you think down below in the comments.