Gears of War Creator Goes Back to His Roots for Project BlueStreak, a New Arena Shooter

Update: In a press release, Nexon America revealed it's acquired a minority stake in Boss Key as a result of this partnership. Nexon also holds the rights to publish the game worldwide.

"Creating fun and memorable shooters is in my DNA, and making the move to free-to-play games is all about maximizing the potential audience for your title while embracing where the industry is headed," Bleszinski said in the press release, which notes he is the CEO of Boss Key. "No one knows the free-to-play market better than Nexon, which is why they were the obvious partner to publish BlueStreak. It's a game and concept I think will really resonate with players who have been clamoring for a new take on an old favorite. After all, I've had a year and a half to plan it."

Original Story: After teasing an upcoming announcement for his next project--the one that has brought him "out of retirement"--Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski has revealed his new shooter, Project BlueStreak.

Little has been announced about the game, though Bleszinski provided some key details on Twitter: It's a free-to-play sci-fi arena shooter for PC. At least some of these details fall in line with what Bleszinski has previously talked about--namely, that he wanted to work on a first-person shooter for PC. More specifically, he wanted to make, much to my delight, an arena shooter--which is to say, something along the lines of Quake or Unreal Tournament, the latter of which he worked on during his time at Epic Games. (Notably, Epic is currently at work on a new Unreal Tournament.)

Bleszinski's new studio, Boss Key Productions, is working on BlueStreak with South Korean company Nexon, best known outside of Asia for free-to-play games like MapleStory. The BlueStreak name is not yet final, meaning in the future there will be less confusion with any Martin Lawrence movies, lest Boss Key choose to name it National Security.

According to Bleszinski, you shouldn't expect to see any misleading CG trailers that look nothing like the game. "And no, there won't be a fake CG trailer showing 'Gameplay' because that's not how Boss Key does it," he wrote on Twitter.

Last year, he revealed some concept art for a game he was working on, though it's unclear if that project--known as Silverstreak--is the same as what we're now hearing about.

Unfortuantely, a time table for when we'll learn more about BlueStreak was not detailed. Bleszinski did say he would be answering questions tomorrow, July 9, at 5:30PM Eastern, though just where he'll be doing so wasn't mentioned.

What do you make of these few details Boss Key has shared? Is an arena shooter something you're interested in? Let us know in the comments below.