Fortnite studio called out by Gears of War director over hiring practices

Enlarge / Former Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski speaks onstage at Spike TV's 2011 Video Game Awards at Sony Studios in Los Angeles. (credit: Getty Images / Jeff Kravitz)

Former Epic Games developer and director Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski took public shots at his former employer on Friday in what appears to be a hiring dispute.

"Hey @epicgames, could you please stop trying to hire away my team?" Bleszinski, who currently runs a studio called Boss Key Productions, wrote on Twitter on Friday afternoon. "We just launched @Radical_Heights on #UE4 and are really happy with how it's going." The tweet included a GIF of the phrase "not cool."

Bleszinski followed this up with an insinuation that this alleged employee poaching has to do with his studio's new "X-Treme Early Access" game Radical Heights, which bears a striking resemblance to Epic's hugely popular Fortnite Battle Royale. "There's room at this genre for more than a few games SMH [shaking my head]," he wrote in one tweet. In another, he added, "We have plenty of ways to make [Radical Heights] our own, but they may never see the light of day if [Epic] keeps doing this."

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