Cliff Bleszinski: LawBreakers No Longer Free-to-Play, Will Release This Summer as Steam Exclusive

A few months ago, Cliff Bleszinski and his new development company announced LawBreakers as a free-to-play, online MMO shooter. Today at this year’s Game Developers Conference, the studio took a step back and announced that the game won’t be a free-to-play game after all. Instead, LawBreakers will release as a premium digital game but it won’t cost $60, according to the famed creator of Gears of War.

“As the game continued to take shape, we realized free-to-play wasn’t the right fit for what we’re building,” said Cliff Bleszinski. “LawBreakers is a competitive game at heart and that means balance is a big priority to me, my team, and our community. Using a digital premium model helps ensure an even playing field by giving fans access to every available role without any barriers.”

It was also announced that the game will release exclusively on Steam, though there’s still the chance of a console port sometime down the line, but, as the developer notes in the F.A.Q, we’ll have to see what the future holds, though we imagine a PS4/Xbox One release isn’t too far-fetched.

There’s also an F.A.Q released by Boss Key Productions:

1. Why Steam?
We explored all of our options and determined Steam is the best fit for our community and the competitive game we’re building.

2. Why did Boss Key/Nexon decide to make changes to the game’s business model?
After careful consideration of how the game has been progressing, we realized free-to-play wasn’t the right fit for what we’re building.Lawbreakers is a competitive game at heart and that means balance is a big priority. Using a digital premium model helps ensure an even playing field by giving fans access to every available role without barriers.

3. How much will LawBreakers cost at launch?
The price at launch hasn’t been revealed yet, but we want to provide a high quality, digital downloadable game at a compelling price. LawBreakers willnot have the $60 price point of a traditional boxed product.

4. Are you developing LawBreakers exclusively for PC? / WillLawBreakers release on additional platforms?
We’re initially developing LawBreakers for PC, then… who knows what the future holds?

5. When can I play?
We are planning to run a number of upcoming tests before launch. Exact timings are still to be confirmed, but we encourage players to Wishlist the game on Steam to be first in the know about our upcoming announcements.

In case you skipped to the end without taking in every single word, you can now add LawBreakers to your Steam Wishlist. Yippee?

For those wondering just how good a machine you’ll need to play the game, Steam has the minimum and recommended specs listed, so we’ve nicked ’em and pasted them below. This author won’t be playing it on PC….