"I was a functional alcoholic": Gears of War author Cliff Bleszinski returns to game development and no longer wants to create PvP projects

The developer quit drinking and now wants to create new inspiring projects.

Recently, Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski reminded everyone of himself. He gave an interview to 80.lv and shared memories of his work, as well as talked about his future plans – he intends to fully return to game development.

The creator of successful projects for Xbox 360 wanted to make a "cool arena shooter" and founded Boss Key Productions in 2014. However, his LawBreakers never became a hit, the game was shut down, and the studio was closed. According to Cliff, one of the biggest problems was his ego.

When Cliff was looking for specialists, he met Rod Fergusson, with whom he had worked for many years at Epic Games. But ego prevented them from reuniting with his old colleague.

Fergusson himself seemed open to cooperation, but he wanted to become a co-founder of Boss Key Productions – Cliff didn't like this. Now, looking back, the developer admits he made a mistake:

Now I realize that I needed someone like Fergusson, who would tell me "no" and help guide the project [...] I should have brought Fergusson in, but I wanted it to be my studio only, and that was the first moment my ego started to take over – I thought that if I did it as "Cliff," people would come. I was counting on some loyalty to my personal brand from those who knew who I was, but it turned out that people are loyal to the game, not to a specific person.

Cliff also spoke about his problems with alcohol: "I mostly developed the Gears of War trilogy with a hangover. During that period, I was essentially a functional alcoholic." The developer drank for many years, but at a certain point, his body failed – in March 2026, he woke up in the hospital after a seizure caused by alcohol consumption, and it took him a week for examinations and recovery. He realized it was time to quit.

In recent years, Cliff avoided games, read books, co-produced Broadway shows, released memoirs, and a comic book. But now, after four months of sobriety, he has fallen in love with games again and wants to return to working on them:

Ultimately, I want to create characters and worlds. I want to make things that people will cosplay and even get tattoos of.

The developer admitted that he began to see gameplay mechanics, weapons, and stories in the world around him – for example, a bush trimmer in his garden, or how fireflies fly in his yard.

Cliff has already acted as a consultant in the development of the asymmetrical horror game Soul Walker: "So, perhaps over time, I will fully return to the industry [...]".

He vaguely answered the question of what his new game might be like, but clearly stated that it would not be a PvP project:

Good luck to everyone working in that field. I'm more of a PvE fan now. Horde mode saved Gears of War 2, and in my opinion, it's a timeless theme because players just want to go online with friends and shoot – no frills or complications.