Epic Games has announced today that Cliff Bleszinski – the man behind Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit and Gears Of War – is leaving the company. Yeap, this is not a joke. CliffyB is no more and from what it looks like, he won’t be opening a new independent studio. In other words, this is a permanent goodbye from one of Epic’s pioneers.
Even though PC gamers hated Cliff for his latest statements about PC gaming and the fact that he was the man thanks to whom Epic centered on consoles, it really saddens us to see him leaving. After all, a couple of weeks ago he was stating – in a IAMA discussion in Reddit – that he was actually doing his dream job.
Tim Sweeney, Epic’s founder, CEO and technical director said:
“In 20 wonderful years with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski has grown into a true design luminary, and his contributions to the ‘Unreal’ and ‘Gears’ series have helped shape the game industry into what it is today. Cliff leaves Epic with our gratitude for his many contributions, and our wishes for continued success in the next chapter of his life!”
Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, added:
“In my 10 years of working with Cliff, his passion for creating video games of the highest quality has been unflinching. We are grateful for all of his hard work, and remain committed to making our fans happy and to always raising the bar in everything we do at Epic.”
Cliff Bleszinski concluded:
“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break.
I will miss the projects, the playtests, the debates, and most importantly, the people. Epic only hires the best of the best, and it has been a joy working with each and every one of you on a daily basis, whether you were hired weeks ago or decades ago. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a variety of disciplines, from code to art to marketing and PR – it’s been one big, rewarding learning experience. I’m confident that each project that is being built, whether at Epic, Chair, PCF, or Impossible will be top notch and will please gamers and critics alike.“
Farewell CliffyB and best of luck with whatever you do next. Special thanks to our reader Sid Spyker for informing us about it!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email