Cliff Bleszinski wants to open his own studio

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of when and with who”

Chris KempDecember 15, 2012

The man behind Gears of War and former Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said that it’s only a matter of time before he opens his own development studio.

Speaking to G4, Bleszinski said that he is looking to “work on something new and fresh and sort of redefine my legacy”.

“I had been working with [Epic] since I was 17-years-old. It’s time for a fresh start. I’ll start a new studio maybe at some point – it’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of when and with who.”

This October Bleszinski announced that he’ll be leaving Epic, taking what he described as “a much-needed break”.

However, according to the designer, it didn’t take long for studios to try and snatch him up, and he’s since been considering his options.

“I started to get a little bit bored and then my phone started ringing a lot. I started meeting with a lot of people, a lot of developers and publishers… just to see what could possibly happen, of which I can tell you nothing right now,” he explained.

Ubisoft took a particularly interesting approach, sending him a cellphone with just a single number saved in it.

“I felt like Liam Neeson in Taken. I called the number, talked to them, and we ended up meeting up and it was cool, but it was like the covert ops moment that was really amazing.”

Cliff did acknowledge that it’s important not to let celebrity status go to your head – you need people around you who aren’t afraid to stand up to you.

“I think when you look at Romero and when he did Ion Storm, I think it worked against him as much as for him. If you look at Curt Schilling and his studio [38 Studios]… You have to be careful when you have a certain amount of cult of personality. You can use it and leverage it to some extent, but you have to be careful not to believe your own crap, honestly.

“And surrounding yourself with people who will question yourself at the right times… you don’t want to surround yourself with a lot of ‘yes men’ essentially.”