Cliff Bleszinski's multiplayer shooter Lawbreakers has struggled ever since the it launched in August 2017, and now not only has publisher Nexon written it off - they are blaming PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds for its failure.
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In Nexon's Q3 earnings report they write off the entire value of Lawbreakers, meaning they now value the game at $0 and presumably will not be supplying any more money towards Boss Key's game. They were quoted as saying, "In Q3, impairment loss related to LawBreakers accounts for the majority of the total other expense. We will not accrue any more impairment loss pertaining to LawBreakers."
More interesting though is that Nexon seem to blame PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds for Lawbreakers' failure, rather than Overwatch which is the more common comparison. Nexon's Chief Financial Officer Shiro Uemura said:
"Our results in North America in the third quarter were below our outlook, mainly due to the sales from LawBreakers being below our expectations. LawBreakers is a unique FPS developed for core users. We had very high expectations for its launch; however, the timing of its launch turned out to be unfortunate, specifically the blockbuster PC online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds came out right about the same time, making the market environment very tough for first-person shooters in general and for LawBreakers."
While it can't be denied that PUBG is incredibly popular, it is a vastly different game to Lawbreakers. Most cite the popularity of Overwatch as the main reason for Lawbreakers' failure to get noticed by the masses, as well as the price of entry. Cliffy B had ways Lawbreakers can be saved but with Nexon seemingly pulling all support we don't know how much longer the game will be running.
