Legendary Game Designer Cliff Bleszinski has announced that effective today, he has left his twenty year home at Epic Games. Often referred to as “CliffyB”, he has been one of the most influential designers in the gaming industry for years, creating the hyper competitive Unreal franchise, as well as the Xbox 360′s exclusive blockbuster franchise, Gears of War. During his tenure at Epic, Bleszinski also oversaw numerous projects including the profanity ridden shooter Bulletstorm, the mobile hack and slash hit Infinity Blade, and the the stille in development PC exclusive Fortnite, which is partially inspired by Minecraft. Epic is also known for creating the all powerful and widely used Unreal engine that is available to development studios around the world.
While Mr. Bleszinksi never released a finished Kinect product, his influence on the industry cannot be understated and he did dabble with Microsoft’s motion control device. Earlier this year, CliffyB confirmed that the Kinect controlled Gears of War: Exile was indeed in development at one time, but was canceled for unknown reasons before being officially unveiled. It was also revealed earlier this year that the Chair developed (and Epic produced) Infinity Blade originally began as a prototype for Kinect before its development was moved to mobile platforms.
What the future holds for Bleszinksi is uncertain. We are unsure if he will move on to join another development studio, start his own, or move onto projects not related to gaming at all. One thing is for certain; We thank CliffyB for all of his contributions to gaming over the years and we look forward to seeing what he sets his mind to next. You can check out the full statement released about Bleszinski’s departure from Epic by following this link.
