10 Terrible Decisions That Doomed Popular Video Game Companies

4. Selling Out To Jump On Battle Royale - Boss Key Productions

Boss Key Productions was supposed to be the next big creative force in gaming. Headed up by former Epic veteran Cliff Bleszinski, the new team quickly got to work on their first blockbuster title, the hero shooter Lawbreakers.

The multiplayer title set two teams against each other - the 'Law' and the 'Breakers' - across some genuinely well designed maps and game modes. The actual gameplay - perhaps unsurprisingly considering the people behind it - was solid as well, packing a real punch.

Sadly, it sold poorly (thanks in part to comparisons to Overwatch and Boss Key's own muddied messaging) and was a financial failure. Though it was criticised as being a lifeless, blatant copy of Blizzard's shooter, that description was actually quite reductive, and undermined the great concepts Lawbreakers actually had.

However, the same defence can't be used for their next game, the battle royale-themed Radical Heights.

Jumping ship from Lawbreakers to chase the luxurious market of battle royale, the studio pushed out their take on the genre mere months into development, dubbing the release "X-Treme Early Access". As expected, everyone saw it as a blatant, cynical attempt to cash in on a booming idea, and the studio as a whole shut down a month later.

[JB]