It seems like this year has been the year of the major developer departures, what with Rod Fergusson, Cliff Bleszinski, Robert Bowling, and the doctors Muzyka and Zeschuk departing their respective developers.
departing their respective developers. While Fergusson has already landed safelyon his feet at Irrational Games— where he will oversee the development of BioShock Infinite — his colleague Cliff Bleszinski has yet to give any indication as to what he plans to do next.
In the post on Epic Gamesofficial site, the one that revealed Bleszinksi’s departure, Cliff revealed more details would soon follow, but since then we haven’t heard a peep. However, the developer — rather than taking a much-needed vacation — has been keeping himself busy, visiting some of this generation’s most high profile studios.
Now, whether or not these visits were business or pleasure (Bleszinski loves the game industry) is unclear, but the fact he’s making the rounds should have gamers intrigued. In fact, Bleszinski even took to Twitter to express his interest in helping save a franchise that is on its way down: Resident Evil .
Hey, Capcom. Call me. We can fix Resident Evil. Together.
– Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) October 28, 2012
While we doubt Cliffy B was actually soliciting employment from Capcom, it is interesting to consider him taking over a franchise that is trying to adopt the makings of the cover-based shooter, a genre he helped perfect. Nevertheless, it seems pretty unlikely that Bleszinski would move from one franchise to the next, and force himself into endless development loops.
It wasn’t long ago that Activision and Infinity Ward lost Robert Bowling, who functioned as Creative Strategist for the Call of Duty franchise. Could Cliffy B be the person to usher that highly successful series into the next-gen? Probably not, but his involvement alone might bring many who have lost interest in the franchise back into the fold.
A more likely scenario, though, is Bleszinski announces his own studio, one built on the inspiration of those he visited during his “time off.” Clearly the man has ideas he’d like to explore — or at least that’s the impression he gives off on Twitter — and there’s only really one place to make all of those ideas happen. Regardless, we anxiously anticipate to hear more about Bleszinski’s future.
Where do you think Cliff Bleszinski will end up? Would you like to see him start his own studio, or take over a previously established franchise?
Source: Cliff Bleszinski – Twitter