Gears of War Creator Defends His Next Game's Free-To-Play Model

[UPDATE] The first trailer for Project Bluestreak has been released. Watch it here.

The original story is below.

Today at PAX East, Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski defended his next game's use of free-to-play as its business model. Speaking during a panel presentation, Bleszinski assured fans that Project Bluestreak won't be anything like Game of War or Candy Crush.

"Free-to-play doesn't have to be Game of War, it doesn't need to be Candy Crush," Bleszinski said.

He went on to point out that, although some games have given free-to-play a bad name, there are examples of free-to-play done right such as League of Legends and DOTA 2.

Bleszinski pointed out that every item available for purchase in Project Bluestreak can also be earned through regular gameplay. "I don't want to be pay-to-win," he said.

Also during the panel, Bleszinski and other developers at BossKey Productions explained that Project Bluestreak will follow the games-as-a-service model. Instead of just releasing Project Bluestreak and then moving on to something new, BossKey plans to support the game for a long time with regular content updates and more.

The free-to-play model actually keeps BossKey honest, community manager Rohan Rivas said. "If it's not good, you're not going to keep playing it," he said.

Also during the panel, Bleszinski announced that Project Bluestreak will run on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4. This isn't too surprising, of course, as Bleszinski worked at Epic Games for two decades before quitting to start his own studio.

A concept video for Project Bluestreak--the first video from the game ever released--was also shown during the event, highlighting a colorful, stylized world with some Asian-style settings. If this video is released, we'll embed it in this story.

Project Bluestreak will be published by free-to-play juggernaut Nexon. A release date for the game has not been announced.