For anyone that has been involved in gaming over the last twenty years, the name Cliff Bleszinski or ‘CliffyB’ will be synonymous with a high energy, excitable and innovative mind behind the Gears of War franchise, amongst other endeavours including comics and other smaller games.
However, his brash, in your face style on social media tends to win him very few fans that way, and his outspoken nature is famous for treating contemporaries and fans in a similar fashion. The ‘no holds barred’ approach is an honourable, if blunt one, but this time, it may not save him from some severe backlash.
Cliff Bleszinski – A Brief History
Cliff Bleszinski is no stranger to success. Let that be said. He started his time with Epic Games all the way back in 1992 until 2012, working on the Unreal franchise, before pivoting with the creation of Gears of War, acting as lead designer on the first three instalments. This is where most will recognise him from. His presentations and interviews regarding the franchise showed his enthusiasm and his love for the series, whilst also giving him the platform to grow separate to the developer and the brand.
Come 2012, his contract with Epic Games was up for renewal, and after some negotiating with the head and creator of Epic Games Tim Sweeney, there was no movement in terms and it was decided Bleszinski would step away, and take a break from making video games. In an interview back in 2015, he revealed there was more to this break though, with him admitting he thought he’d retired completely. Telling Destructoid at the time “I honestly thought I was done… It was a combination of gamers feeling jaded, as well as working with some very talented people who were also very jaded,”.
Since then he’d started and closed his own development studio Boss Key Productions, written a memoir, and most announced plans to bring out a comic book series, titled Scrapper. Along with constant updates to social media about his work, he’s also very vocal and involved with fans on sites, especially Twitter.
Cliff Bleszinski’s Past Comes Back to Bite Him
As we’ve already said, Cliff is one of the more outspoken developers, or former developers, on social media currently, and it’d be easy to say this is something that time, power and money has afforded him. However this doesn’t seem to be the case. Some twenty years ago at this point, right Bleszinski was active on chat forums and the like, and as the screenshot below shows – if this is indeed his account -, he had some highly questionable opinions.
Now we have to repeat ourselves here. There’s no concrete proof that this account is indeed Cliff Bleszinski, and whilst this is currently floating around Twitter, this is all alleged to be Cliff Bleszinski’s account. However, it is well known that before the days of social media it was these forums that gave him the platform to interact with fans, normally with the aim of getting feedback for the latest releases, but also to be the face of the company. It’s also thanks to these forums that his nickname became his more famous moniker. How many other developers can you name? How many of those have nicknames?
Perhaps the most worrying piece of ‘evidence’ around this whole ordeal is the tweet – since deleted – from Bleszinski himself. Whilst not directly quoting or referencing the image above, the tweet below was published shortly after all of this went viral, and the deletion of it makes it look all the more worrying.
Of course the example and comparison to James Gunn is obvious, and perhaps warranted, but it reads as an admission that the post and account was indeed his, that there’s no photoshopping involved, and oddly enough, he doesn’t feel the need to clarify or apologise for the dangerous comments made in the post. Jokes are fine. Dark jokes between friends can be okay. Publicly digestible comments advocating being attracted to those below the legal age of consent is not. It is dangerous.
All of that said, it is important to say that these are comments that are allegedly from Cliff Bleszinski, and with no real proof, it’s hard to vilify the man, and whilst the comments are gross and disgusting in nature, they’re not breaking the law directly, so again, the comparison to Gunn is a fair one. What do you think though? Is this even Cliff’s account? Is he to be made accountable for comments he allegedly made twenty years ago? Is it even fair to judge someone based on actions from decades ago? I’m not sure I’d like to be judged now on what I did then. That said, most of us didn’t publicly or privately hold such disgusting attitudes.
What’s your opinion on the whole ordeal?
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