Microsoft Studios acquires rights to Gears of War franchise

[cdj]

The future of the Gears of War franchise is now in Microsoft's hands. The Xbox maker revealed today it acquired the rights to the franchise, including all existing and future games, from creator Epic Games.

That means new entries in the Gears of War franchise will come from Microsoft Studios and will remain exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft has tasked Black Tusk Studios, the company's Vancouver-based developer, with creating future Gears of War titles.

Aiding Black Tusk will be Rod Fergusson, the former Epic Games executive producer and director of production who oversaw the first three games in the Gears of War series. Fergusson is joining Black Tusk, working with the studio's general manager, Hanno Lemke, and overseeing the franchise.

Courtesy: Polygon (http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/27/5345342/gears-of-war-xbox-one-microsoft-epic-games-rod-fergusson)

[AustinWolv]

Please keep the humor but lose some of the pointless dialogue. And make the SP campaign good, don't go all-in MP COD-style.

[oweb26]

Good call Microsoft Gears basically made the xbox what it is today in terms of shooters (and Halo of course).

Sad thing it how long before the franchise turns to crap...I dont think microsoft game studios has a good track record, I could be wrong though.

[JBHuskers]

I'd assume most of the buyers of GoW (and most other shooters) just wants the four hour story that they can fly through at midnight of release before playing online to whore up the leaderboards. If the majority wanted a longer SP, there would have been a better effort on it with some popular shooter by now.

[AustinWolv]

Um, Bioshock? GoW co-op campaign?

Plenty of "old" players still spend a lot of money on games, not just the online Timmies.

[JBHuskers]

Um, Bioshock? GoW co-op campaign?

Plenty of "old" players still spend a lot of money on games, not just the online Timmies.

Bioshock's main focus isn't online like GoW though.

[AustinWolv]

Bioshock's main focus isn't online like GoW though.

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at above........don't sell out for being all MP. GoW has had both, including online co-op. Don't lose the SP and co-op stuff (Horde mode) to just focus on crappy MP versus.

[I OU a Beatn]

I don't care how good or how short the story is. Honestly, probably wouldn't care if there wasn't a story at all. Give me Horde, Overrun, and then tune the shit out of the competitive online modes. Gears 3 was so close to being perfect, it really was. If the sawed off and the retro lancer wouldn't have been included, it would've been just about perfect. With Rod Ferguson there, I have little doubts that it will return to it's roots and be one of the top games.

For the record, though, I enjoyed all the campaigns, even Judgment. Judgment fucked up by changing everything around in the online modes (no down but not out, significantly lower health, too few maps...I could go on forever) in a rush job to release before the new systems. As someone who has invested probably thousands of hours into the games, I'm really hoping this returns to the quality of the first 3 games.