Microsoft acquires Gears of War from Epic, hires series producer Rod Fergusson

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.

[Gazondaily]

I think the franchise was really fatigued by the time GeoW: Judgement came out but still, this is big news.

[Blaze929]

Judgment is like what ODST was to Halo...

But anyway can't wait to see some Gears of War on Xbox One! Guess that kills the possibility of Gears ever hitting PlayStation. Good job on Microsoft for securing that series. Hopefully it can rise to be what it was pre Gears of War 2.

And Rod is back? Awesome.

@theRell - never said it wasn't.

[theRell]

But ODST was good...

[vigilante_man]

I hope this means MS do not do what they did last time around: Halo, Gears, Forza, Halo, Gears, Forza...

Great news for those that dig Gears - just hope they follow Sony's example and create great new franchises rather than bleed old ones to death.

Is this good for the XB1 or is it desperation from Microsoft's part? Is it simply to stop it going multi-platform? Or are they now going to invest in studios? I hope for all XB1 owners it is for the latter.

[abzdine]

i thought MS said GeOW wasn't relevant anymore?

[jimbobwahey]

This reminds me of when Microsoft formed a brand new studio to take over the Halo franchise, and we got the absolute mess that is Halo 4. Now they're doing it again with the Gears of War franchise? They never learn.

[Cueil]

@vigilante_man Black Tusk is working on two other IPs... at least 1 is a brand new IP

[mhunterjr]

I get what you're saying, but Please don't compare ODST to Judgement. ODST was a good game.

[mewhy32]

Not sure if this aquisition was a good move? The last game sold less than it's predecessors.

[mcstorm]

Great news look forward to a new gen gears game.

[mwjw696]

@mewhy32 Just like most PS3 exclusives, LBP, Infamous, GoW, Resistance, Socom, and many others...

People Can Fly sucked at Gears of War anyway.

[JokesOnYou]

Great news, Gears is one of my favorite shooters, now owned by my favorite platform.

[Mister_Dawg]

Guys. ODST was utter badger crap!
I played through it just because it was Halo!
What a fanboy I was with that decision.

[TheGreatAndPowerful]

It was a tired old franchise and no one on the PS side was asking for it to be ported and MS securing the exclusive rights to this series instead of investing that into something new shows just how clueless they really are.

More Halo.. more Forza and now more Gears.

[truefan1]

Microsoft is keeping the classics and bringing in news games. I love what Phil Spencer is doing with the XB1, this might be their most game intensive system yet. Great years ahead with top notch shooters and many new ips coming like Quantum Break.

[PeaSFor]

Wow! That is out of NOWHERE.

I'm so blown away by this.

Does anybody really care about Gears of War any more? Shouldn't they be putting this series to bed in favor of something new and exciting? What's the point?

[TheGreatAndPowerful]

DM

[Why o why]

Good job by ms either way. They were running light on true exclusives. Now there will be no doubt about this franchise. Too bad it wont make its appearance on the ps4. Ms know this is a cash cow so I doubt they'll let it stay dormant like they did so many franchises last gen. Touche, kinda

[Withdreday]

Yet more money hatting.

Screw you MS!

[ShinMaster]

Wowee! Prepare for milking.

I thought 'Judgement' was enough...

[Computersaysno]

Gears feels like one of those single generation IPs that sort of explode onto the scene at the start spectacularly then get a bit worn out by the time a next gen version arrives.

[gaffyh]

This is actually a great idea on MS' part IMO, but I do wonder how much they paid for it. Must be in the tens of millions at least.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Hahahaha! Desperate times call for desperate purchases! Ms don't wanna risk losing another exclusive ip. Hope they don't mess it up.

[DragonKnight]

Because why make your own games when you can just buy the rights to others?

Ah well, Gears is definitely overplayed. People can think this is big news, but when the next Gears comes out and it's incredibly underwhelming, think back to this day and you'll be like "and look what they did with it."

[flyingmunky]

I feel like MS did this just to keep an HD upgrade of the old titles from appearing on ps4 lol. Oh well, I guess that's what MS likes to blow their money on.

[wsoutlaw87]

Ya MS did seem pretty defensive when the reports about it coming to ps came out. I know they didnt want that to every happen so this was a good move.

[UltimateMaster]

Gears of War was pretty worn out. It's going to sell good, but it'll be a total disappointment, complete and utter failure. Then it'll be completely dead.

[awi5951]

They should have bought bioware when they had the chance maybe they would still be a good company and the Doctors wouldnt have quit.

[lifeisgamesok]

Gears isn't even close to dying and you're right very big news indeed

Graphical powerhouse and the best multiplayer returns

[Zichu]

Not trying to say GoW is a bad series. I've only ever played the second game, it was fun and it's great with friends, but GoW 3 sold just under 6 million and Judgement sold less than 1.5 million.

It could make a comeback with the next game, if they really worked hard at it.

[Studio-YaMi]

"Graphical powerhouse"
You're kidding?

Even though I finished Gears of War 1,2&3 .. never looked at the Gears of War games as graphically overwhelming,more like GREAT gameplay with GOOD graphics.

Multiplayer was a blast as well.

[OsirisBlack]

I love gears of war but not sure I trust anyone but Epic to make the game. We all know how judgement turned out and look at halo 4.

[Mister_Dawg]

@Studio-Yami.

Come off it man. Its easy to look back now and compare Gears with games such as Uncharted.
But when Gears 1 exploded onto cinema screens, the trailer was totally mindblowing. Gears started the 'next-gen' at the time graphics revolution. Don't even bother denying it.

[Withdreday]

"Graphical powerhouse"

Not on that GPU...

[ShinMaster]

I never played a multiplayer game that lagged as much as Gears 2.

[bloop]

My only problem with this is now I'll have to go out and get an xb1!! Gears 3 is one of the best mp games of all time. It's a shame a lot of people forgot about the series after 2. Gears 2 was brilliant when it worked, but the lag was just ridiculous at times and I can see why it turned a lot of people off the franchise. But they fixed everything in 3 and it's the one game I keep coming back to play regularly. Having said all that tho, Epic won't be making it, and look how judgement turned out. If it ain't broke...........

[wsoutlaw87]

Gears wasnt a graphical powerhouse but when you first played that first one everyone went "wow". gow1 was such a fun time when my friend who was the first to go next gen got it and a few of us would go play coop.

[awi5951]

Well everyone knew judgment was a spin off and not the GOW developers making it so thats why it failed.

[GarrusVakarian]

I agree, they are going to have to try and make the next game feel fresh while keeping the great core mechanics that people love from the past game. I don't want the next game to be a big seller purely because of it's title (like CoD for example), it needs to be fresh....but familiar. Kinda like the way Halo 5 was more character focused....it was fresh, but still Halo.

Next gen Gears with new (less generic, more complicated/deeper) characters, better writing for the campaign, horde mode (one of my favourite MP modes last gen), the same great cover mechanics and some new/fresh mechanics and i would be sold. I would buy an X1 for Gears 4 and Halo 5 in an instant.

[Gazondaily]

Yeah I'm sure it can be amazing but I got the feeling Cliffy B was struggling to think of ways to make the franchise feel fresh.

Still, let's see how MS fare with the franchise now that they are in charge of it.

[amiga-man]

Didn't M$ themselves say that gears had run it's course or words to that effect?

Obviously thats not true anymore.

http://www.shacknews.com/ar...

It appears he said it for the 360, but the franchise needs refreshing, which I don't think anyone would really argue with.

[NatureOfLogic]

@ amiga-man, That's when It was rumored to be going multiplat. That was nothing more than your typical MS butthurt.

[MightyNoX]

@amiga & @nature of logic:

In either case, it's still a clever move and provides a much needed respite for Xbo after the last couple of weeks.

I do find myself wondering how much money they had to pay.

[HammerKong]

so this says there will be a geras of war game very soon ,cant wait for it ,it was the part of my top ten franchises from last gen ,but i dont know how they will tell the story further,gears sounds like a very mech like generic game ,but it is a not like evry other game it is very fun and focuses greatly on story and i think this will be end to Marcus story and now we wil get a new hero but now i think it wil not be post apocalistic.

[Salooh]

A remake for the first gears would be awesome, it doesn't need a huge multiplayer. 4vs4 is perfect for a gameplay like that. The last of us have the exact same feeling. Just new visuals, next gen graphics, more weapons and stuff like that. Make it scary..etc

As long they make a great single player people will accept the small focused multiplayer :P .

[deviouslight]

At least it means epic games can focus on a new IP maybe?

[Zichu]

I would like to focus on Fortnite and release it on consoles.

[Omegasyde]

Smart decision by Microsoft.

I am wondering if Epic Games, purposely teased a while back that Gears of War could come to playstation since they owned the IP.

It seems like EPIC was either A)Hoping Microsoft gave them a fat check for sequel exclusivity or B)Hoping Microsoft gave them an even fatter check to buy the intellectual property rights.

Either way - Epic won. I wonder what they are working on now.

[PixelNinja]

Epic will definitely be working on the highly awaited Jazz Jackrabbit game.

[ZodTheRipper]

I somehow can't believe that this is going to payoff ...the last Gears flopped pretty hard, now they bought the IP, need to finance R&D to start designing the game and then comes development itself. Can't wait to see how this turns out even if I'm not interested in the game at all.

[webeblazing]

i wish they would of put this money to making a new ip instead. gears is a great game but come on MS. this is what im talking about when i always say half @$$ when i talk about ms. all the money they have they dont want to take risk on new ips, when the bad move they make against their core gamers become a risk that was seen miles away. im not saying this is not good or gear isnt a great game. its just that they never really try to go out and make something on their own. like F the risk i wanna make this game. and i truly wonder if the devs theyre getting to handle this franchise really want to do it and not the pr talk like "im so happy to be working on it instead of some of the ideas and concepts we were thinking before this happen".

[Omegasyde]

@Zod

Sooner or later Videogames will follow the same path Hollywood is doing....

Rebooting well known franchises. Don't be surprised if it starts happening. Capcom is going this route with Resident Evil and DvilMay Cry.

[Xsilver]

Good now i finally get to see What Gears will look like on the NEW UNREAL Engine.

[Sammy777]

It is a good news for MS . With Bungie leaving the Halo franchise , this was just another ip which MS truely needed to keep xb1 relevant. This won't impact the console war but good news for potential xb1 owners

[Eonjay]

But they said that Gears was no longer relevant. Hmm. I think Epic played the hell out of Microsoft. I mean don't get me wrong this is a win for Microsoft, but this is how it went down:

1. Epic makes comment about wanting to make Gears
2. Epic shows UE4 in February @ PlayStation Event
multiplatform
3. Microsoft makes comment about, Gears no longer being relevant.
4. Mark Rein tweets Shu Yoshida saying he should try GoW
5. Xbox community tweets Spencer saying they want Gears to stay exclusive, he responds that he agrees and is working on it.
6. Epic sells IP to Microsoft
7. Gears is now relevant again?

[PixelNinja]

It's all about speculation, something Microsoft masters in.
They probably bought the IP a while back, but from then until now, Epic and Microsoft were teasing us to bring some news to the dormant IP.

[KingDadXVI]

I think that a fair bit of your argument may be correct. At least the parts about Epic baiting MS and the Xbox community wanting it to stay exclusive.

The one point I would make is that Phil thought the game had run its course on the 360. Here is a section of the article by IGN:

He said the series "did kind of run its course on 360," and that its story doesn't support as many games as the Halo series. That is, at least in its current incarnation. He suggested they would need to "expand the universe and what people are doing" to make it viable for future games. "Maybe take it more gritty, I don't know," he said.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/...

He also says, "I want to find a great Gears game, and I thought we did a good job with Judgment but I don't think it hit the level of quality we saw in the previous games,"

So I think that this has been in the works for a bit but that you are correct in the fact that Epic was dangling this carrot in front of Sony to up the value of the IP.

IMO a few things happened. Epic did not really want to do another Gears but wanted maximum value for the IP. Microsoft sees $$$ in the franchise but Phil correctly sees that a new Gears will require some original and potentially new input if they are going to basically start a new series that will invigorate the IP. Microsoft also new that having this iconic IP show up on the PS4 would be a PR disaster even if it was multiplatform. Epic also knew this and used that as leverage to get maximum value for an IP that they really didn't want to do any thing with.

If they can reboot the franchise in a logical way that gives them another 3 games out of it and manage to make the games as ground breaking as the original game then MS has a serious money maker on their hands.

[ALLWRONG]

MS said "Gears had ran it's course on the 360"

[Eonjay]

But they said that Gears was no longer relevant. Hmm. I think Epic played the hell out of Microsoft. I mean don't get me wrong this is a win for Microsoft, but this is how it went down:

1. Epic makes comment about wanting to make Gears
2. Epic shows UE4 in February @ PlayStation Event
multiplatform
3. Microsoft makes comment about, Gears no longer being relevant.
4. Mark Rein tweets Shu Yoshida saying he should try GoW
5. Xbox community tweets Spencer saying they want Gears to stay exclusive, he responds that he agrees and is working on it.
6. Epic sells IP to Microsoft
7. Gears is now relevant again?

[air1]

You do know ms didn't have to buy it right? You say it as if epic tricked them lol..

And from what I've read they said its ran its course on the 360.. How did you get it's not relevant from that? Never mind... Don't answered that.

[Sayai jin]

@Septic, nice find. The series needed some nice additions and unfortunately Judgement did not offer it. They took what was once Gears and added COD like features. Many people went back to playing Gears 3. This is good news none the less.

[MikeGdaGod]

this is great news for xbone fans, exclusives are what drive the industry.

the only way i'd get a xbone is when they get must-have exclusives, and even though we dont know how thw next Gears will turn out, i'm glad to see MS at least trying to convince the hard core audience.

at least they're headed in the right direction.

now if they announce the next Gears as a Kinect based game....scratch everything i just said

[hqgamez]

Microsoft is hoping to cash in like Halo, but they wont.
The story and world ran it's course. Epic was done with the game already before judgement. MS wanted another so Epic made Judgement. Not much focus was put in the game because it really was just to cash in. Epic knows that with the new gen it's time to do new things. Can't just keep on milking. You might say the same with Halo, but that's different. Bungie made a world that was filed with major detail that you can create a story out of anything. Think like Mass Effect. If bioware wanted, they can start anything in that world. Now example of a game that can't is Crysis. It already ran it course. The only interesting thing now, is well... it's graphics. Crysis 3 was just a waste.

The guys at square needs to know this as well. FF13 series. A waste. End it. Do something else. Ain't nobody cares about Gears it is irrelevant. NO MS is gonna make them start a new series based off some other site in the universe. Best way is with a new character, but kind of pointless since the ending of Gears 3 everyone knows. Unless they do some crazy shit happened to cause something else. MS will open it's Windows money and spend that $$$$ in ads. Pay Youtubers to Mention it as being. That M!3M!3 wasn't the first. Who knows, pay some review sites for desperation. This fails, then the MS board will think again about selling off the Xbox Division like they did before because it's profit goes to advertise this.

[Last_Boss]

I understand what you're saying, but when it comes to FF, the series us way too open ended. That's why each main game has had a different cast. SE, should if never announce 4 games at all in that time frame though.

[incredibleMULK]

Its big news because it shows Microsoft's desperation. Xbox ones only hope of surviving relies on a tired old franchise. They better make it free to play multi player only.

[Sayai jin]

@incradiblemulk...why is it desperation. Wouldn't that be MS listening to their fans. You know bringing a well know and cherished exclusive to back home to the fans.

[ado908]

@sayai except fans weren't asking for another Gears of war game on xbox one. I constantly go on gaming forums and N4G and not once did I come across a fan asking for a new gears of war. In actuality i saw people neglected in a new gears of war because they played judgement.

[tiremfej]

@Incredible How is Sony not milking Killzone? 6 different games in 9 years? You need to realize how ignorant your comments are

[Sayai jin]

@Ado- Well I will not argue against your experience, but my own experience was that fans were asking for. Gears still has a large audience that plays Gears 3.

[incredibleMULK]

@tiremj you counted the PSP and vita kill zones. Truly pathetic. HA! Kz on ps2 kz2&3 on ps3. Kzsf on ps4. Liberation on vita.

Nice try fan boy. All hail Microsoft. Glorious and merciful Microsoft. Please step on my nuts. 'Crunch' Thank you may I have another?

[P_Bomb]

@tire
Milked??!! Ummmmmm. Killzone only had 1 ps2 game. It only had 2 ps3 games (killzone2 and Killzone3). 1 PSP game. 1 vita game. 1 ps4 game. These are all different gens, different platforms, and the most *new* games they ever released on any given platform was TWO. Games like assassins creed meanwhile have new console releases every year. Even Gears in comparison had 4 new games on the 360 in the same time Killzone had 2.

[ALLWRONG]

cough SOCOM and GT cough

Wake me when MS ever has as many sequels and spin offs of those ^^^ 2 franchises.

[TGF_Zero]

This is big news for Microsoft, I hope they hire Cliify B to work on the Gears franchise as well

[Patrick_pk44]

Cliff left for a reason, he wanted to work on something new, another game. Pretty sure he cherishes GOW, but at the same time it isn't that appealing.

[gman_moose]

Gears of War 1 was an achievement when it came out, but it became stale and outdated over time. At this point, this news is meaningless to most people.

[Patrick_pk44]

I am quite disappointed that Microsofts big announcements is Gear of War. Sadly, it does not have a spark to the game, it is pretty mediocre.

[UncleGermrod]

I agree, Gears was the kind of game where after 3 installments all they could really do is shake up the formula and, IMO, Overrun mode was the only good thing to come from that. I am confident now that the next-gen tech along with a few years to rest the franchise will yield some great results.

I guess only time will tell, but I will be following this project with a keen eye my friends.

[Magicite]

MS can only buy existing things, they cant create anything new.
Besides Gears of War has lost its ''greatness'' long ago.

[alb1899]

I was waiting for this.....no more wait!

[Aceman18]

Good move by Microsoft but I was already done with this franchise after part 3. I didn't even bother with judgment, but still good move by Microsoft.

[Zancruz]

Meh, Not really... Microsoft wants and needs more exclusives, They should have been brought Gears a long time ago. Besides I don't know how the rest of ya'll feel, But the 1st Gears was the ONLY good Gears game to me. I wouldn't mind playing a HD enhance version of the first game, That's for sure. Great memories!

[AKissFromDaddy]

Agreed. I dropped Gears of War franchise when I wasted my time trying to love Gears of War 2 aka Glitches of War 2. I neglected Gears 3 but bought into Judgement, with high hopes because of People Can Fly, and immediately regretted the decision. Gear 1 may stay the best for the foreseeable future because of the multiplayer game design and the story's somewhat scary atmosphere. Remember the Berserker scene . I also miss the Kyrll, they were very frightening.

[otherZinc]

This is a fantastic move!

For those hating: SONY trots out GT, Killzone, GoW, Lbp, Infamous, Resistance, Soccom,...etc. If SONY had system sellers like Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, they'd bring them out e very 2 or 3 years as M$ does.

But SONY had to discontinue a franchise or 2 due to terrible sales.

[DeathOfTheFanBoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[VSVP]

Big news indeed, no more rumour articles about possible gow on ps

[Hellsvacancy]

Yep good news indeed

[OlgerO]

Microsoft is building on their exclusives

[RGB]

By buying other devs IPs rather than creating new ones. :/

[Gamer666]

@RGB...

This is simply a good business model...

Fund the development of a new IP through a 3rd party partner know for great games. Build the IP into a AAA franchise with the 3rd party. Give them a ton of money and internalize the evolution and development of the franchise going forward.

Everyone wins... Epic gets a boat load of money, MS retains the exclusivity of the franchise. Xbox gamers get further assurance that MS is standing behind Xbox as a gaming platform.

[jessupj]

It's really great to see MS genuinely investing into their console and the industry instead of paying money to block 3rd party games coming to certain consoles. Well done MS.

I have to ask myself could that money have been better spent on a new IP, but I think a lot of Gears fans are going to be happy about this news. Now the next Gears can take full advantage of the xbones strengths.

While I would have liked to play a gears game on my PS4 I'm glad my fellow xbone gamers will get to enjoy a hopefully great exclusive.

[ic3fir3]

Titanfall, Halo and gears? omg
Xbox One wins in line up

[Flamingweazel]

Not really, all typical dude bros . It's why xbox dosn;t do weel outside the dude bro US.

[IcicleTrepan]

what the hell is a dudebro?

[HammerKong]

i think they are pushing multiple games ,not only gears ,halo ,there are multiple studios working on multiple games and yeah there is more room for old titles ,like there is room for next uncharted ,uncharted 4 is the hint that there will be more uncharted games not only uncharted 4.

[razrye]

Infamous second son, deep down, driveclub, the order 1886, uncharted 4 and whatever santa monica are getting up to. Uncharted alone will bury them games.

[LaChance]

You tried, but that doesnt really sound exciting.

I give you an E for Effort.

[GarrusVakarian]

@LaChance

Lol. Those games don't sound exciting to you? What kind of a gamer are you? Or is it just because they are Sony exclusives?

Uncharted 4 doesn't sound exciting to you? Infamous doesn't look exciting to you? The Order 1885 doesn't look exciting to you? Lol, get out of here. If they were MS exclusive you would be all over them.

[ic3fir3]

loool, Halo and gears its a system sellers, and best sellers game, Sony its good because naughtydog, but naughtydog create 1game 2 and 2years, Titanfall its cod variante but better, Halo its a best Fps exclusive ever on console, Gears, its best 3person game online on consoles, and have a good campaing.
GG Xbox One its so strong on games now :)

Gears of War, Halo5, Titanfall, Quantum Break, Fable Legends,Project Spark, D4, Below, Sunset Overdrive, and possible Forza Horizon 2 and Crackdown 3, GG

[Xsilver]

@lachance
lmao not exciting to you yup didn't see that coming -_- i gave you T for trolling, i bet if they were MS exclusive you would like them am i rite.

@IC3fir3
"Titanfall its cod variante but better."
So are you asking for another COD cycle :/.

"Halo its a best Fps exclusive ever on console."
You do know that award has been given to Half Life multiple times rite?

"Gears, its best 3person game online on consoles, and have a good campaing."
i know don't know what you were trying to say but the best third person IMO is UC2 and allot have said the same thing.

[Rainstorm81]

@La Chance

Honestly i wish MS didnt acquire the Gears rights, while i think Gears should stay on Xbox consoles, i think they need to focus on more than Gears Forza and Halo alternating every other year like they did with the 360.

We got Forza at launch this upcoming Fall is Halo next Fall is Gears...with CoD/Titanfall sprinkled in...then the cycle resets

How can that be exciting when we know what to expect?

You may not be excited by the Sony list, but half of the list are new IPs....dont you want new experiences on Xbox as well?

[razrye]

Enjoying your bubble. Well spent by the way.

[LoveOfTheGame]

For everyone's attention,

Gears of War vs Uncharted:

More games sold: Gears
Higher rated franchise: Gears

@Lukas
UC4 and Infamous, not exciting to say the least. The Order though, does seem very intriguing.

P.S. Did not include UC:GA or Gears Judgement.

[GarrusVakarian]

@loveofthegame

Facepalm.... quantity sold isn't representative of the quality of the game...take CoD for example.

And actually Uncharted 2 is rated higher than any Gears game, and it won more awards....and it won GOTY 2009.

"@Lukas
UC4 and Infamous, not exciting to say the least."

Lmao, whatever you say!

[pornflakes]

Well, only the Order and uncharted4 souns great.

SOny has this year only one good Exclusive and thats THE ORDER.

The rest will come late in 2015 so no nee dto buy a PS4 yet.

Infamous?? 30 FPS/108ßp.. it looks like a PS3 game, sorry. Deep Down won't be what ppl expect, mark my words.. and driveclub? Just another racing game.

[nix]

LaChance,

You just got F for Failing!

[ado908]

@loveofgaming uncharted 1 vs gears of war 1: gears of war 1 got higher rated. Uncharted 2 vs gears 2: uncharted 2 is higher rated and has a higher rating than all of gears games and won goty 2009. Uncharted 3 vs gears of war 3: uncharted 3 higher rated and won more goty awards 10x more than gears of war 3 did but still 2011 skyrim won. Naughty dogs new I.P. the last of us vs gears of war judgement: lmao utter destruction to the gears franchise combined. The game got higher ratings than all of gears games and is goty for 2013 and got the most game of the year awards ever! beating out skyrim, which had the most goty awards before the last of us got released. Last of us goty has 232 awards according to game of the year picks blog 2013. Don't ever try to compare epic games work ethics to naughty dog because there is no competition. The only company that can compete with naughty dog as a company is either rockstar or valve. I would have said bioware but after mass effect 3, no... so don't even compare epic to naughty dog

[LoveOfTheGame]

@Lukas
That's great, Gears Trilogy, overall, still has a higher score then Uncharted. You and that guy who PM'd me need to learn averages. Also, you should probably stop hitting your face, not too healthy. I never once said Sales=Quality, razrye stated Uncharted would bury Gears and I simply stated how the UC franchise has never buried Gears.

Also those two games aren't exciting at all too me, I find UC overrated and never could get fully into Infamous and new IPs are always more exciting then sequels/continuations.

@ado
IDK what your problem is. I never said once Epic was greater than ND and never even came close to saying ND is a bad dev. ND is/was actually my most respected dev for the past couple gens. The only thing that has knocked them down a bit now is that they have decided to continue a franchise through two gens.

Edit: Grammar and such

[UncleGermrod]

UC4 etc. will all be huge games and that is the reason I have a ps4. But I am just glad to see MS is investing to keep the xbox one premier platform for online shooters. That being said, I do agree that some more variety would be great, and I think titles like sunset overdrive and quantum break are proof that there will be variety (though we've still yet to see how those games turn out).

Your comment just solidifies the view that each platform has its strengths. Luckily for me I could pay for both systems. In a couple years time when the price drops, your should do the same

[gamer2013]

Pahleeze! No just no. lol

[kneon]

I've never cared for Gears or Halo and if I want TitanFall I can play it on PC. I'm still waiting for some "must have" XB1 titles.

[Mystogan]

Fable Legends, Forza 5, Quantum Break, Ryse, Killer Instinct, Dead Rising 3, Sunset OverDrive, Halo 5, Black Tusks Game.

Unconfirmed/Rumors:

Gears 4
Phantom Dust 2
State of Decay MMO
Core Rare Game
New Lionhead IP
Crackdown 3
Lift London IP
MS Victoria IP
New Twisted Pixel Game

[MightyNoX]

@mystogan:

Black tusks game was revealed to be non existant, a tech demo. Their only project is the next Gears of war. Read the article.

"The thing we showed at E3 last year, it was something that was done in Unreal and more of a concept piece," Spencer said, calling it "an asset" created by the team to get their creative juices flowing, not necessarily an in-development game.

Also MS Victoria has been shut down.

[bganci]

cBoat Says it was not a tech demo but a real game..

[Sammy777]

Titanfall is on PC and is an MP only game. Halo franchise is DOA after Bungie. Same goes to Gears . Also PS4 has gow,gt,uncharted -franchises which are still being made by original developers. A single game or 2 won't effect the outcome of console wars. A few upcoming multiplat games are running at 720p on xb1 which will hurt xb1's image even more as per Thuway

@below
Halo is not DOA.The creators left the franchise for Destiny and h4 couldn't even hit 90 at meta and the LIVE area was empty just after months of its release. You are calling me a fanboy for pointing the obvious?

[Mystogan]

Lol Halo is DOA? Hahahahaha silly fanboy.

[VSVP]

Why are you presenting a case for what each console has lol. Be in the business of playing games, thats what its all about. Wars over console IPs? jokes.

[Pinkdolphinyfg]

9 million copies is not doa no matter how you say it, put it, or spin it and alot more than any ps franchise has ever done might i add.

[GarrusVakarian]

"Halo its a best Fps exclusive ever on console, Gears, its best 3person game online on consoles, and have a good campaing. "

Is it me, or do Xbox fanboys always forget to say "in my opinion"? I agree with Gears being the best 3rd person online game......but cmon dude, that's your opinion, it's not fact.

[GuruMeditation]

It's strange, but I've noticed that. There's an odd lack of humility amongst some of the more defensive fans, as if putting 'in my opinion' would make them appear somehow weak or potentially damage their credibility... I don't think it's exclusive to MS fans, but it does appear at first glance to be more common with them, possibly due to XBox's geographical strongholds being a bit more 'confident'.

[Hercules189]

Its like when Sony fans always talk about Naughty Dog

[guyman]

Omg omg omg omg, you're like totally wrong

[Sayai jin]

@Flaming- wouldn't that be MS listening to their fans. It;s good to keep good exclusives...get a solid core of exclusives and then build more IP's. I see nothing wring with ic3's list other than TItanFall is not a proven franchise yet.

[green]

This acquisition goes to show that if Titanfall moves Xbox One units, then Microsoft will have no problem buying the IP or paying Respawn entertainment to keep it Xbox only for the foreseeable future.

[SegaGamer]

Shooters.......yawn. Microsoft have been the same since the original Xbox. And i am not a fanboy, i just like to see variety on my consoles.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Nice purchase!

[AKissFromDaddy]

Yo, I'm just curious to why this commentator apparently gets reply-less disagrees for innocent,positive comments towards Microsoft on most articles I view his or her comments on?

[SegaGamer]

Pathetic isn't it ? look you have 3 disagrees for pointing this out. They don't even bother giving you an answer, they just put disagree.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Agreed. These chaps are using this site in such a weird way.

[True_Samurai]

Yeeees!

[NYC_Gamer]

I hope MS brings over more talent from the original trilogy

[jmac53]

Most of them left Epic already.

[snookiegamer]

Here comes the Boooom!

Nice acquisition for MS, good news for Xbox One gamers.

Demonstrates MS are putting more emphasis on Games!...which is all we ever wanted :)

[Omar91]

Damn now I gotta buy a xbox one to play gears. Was hoping I wouldn't have to spend more money.

Smart move on their part though, I can't wait to see how gears 4 looks like on a next gen console.

[starscream420]

I love to hear it.......Microsoft needs to continue making sure they have exclusives that will encourage people to buy theXbox One.

[Ricegum]

Does anyone else realise that this could be huge news for PlayStation fans, this could mean Epic Games are wanting to go multiplatform, but Microsoft want to keep hold of the Gears franchise.

[Gazondaily]

Epic Games were always multiplatform though. It's just Gears that was exclusive to Microsoft.

[Ricegum]

Ah I knew this, sorry guys! I'm a tad tired today.

Regardless, this is great news for those who love Gears, and another reason one might want an Xbox One.

[GusBricker]

Epic did that anyway. Only thing exclusive to Xbox was Gears.

PS3 got Unreal and Bulletstorm, too.

Edit: Damn it, I want a Bulletstorm sequel!

[Omegasyde]

True. It could also mean EPIC decided against creating another Gears of War game (license fatigue?)

Sorta like how Insomniac doesn't want to do any more "Resistance" games.

[lastofgen]

But does it matter now that ms has acquired the franchise from epic?
Of course it isn't going multi-plat now.

btw, if you were just talking about epic games, they have always been multi-plat with their licensing and other games.

[jmac53]

The question is who is going to develop these gears of war games? Are they creating a new studio?

[JasonKCK]

Epic is multiplatform. Unreal has been on just about every platform for the past 15 years.

[spicelicka]

What the hell are you talking about. The next Epic game was gonna be multiplatform regardless, since it's not first party.

This was a great decision by MS because they didn't own Gears IP and Epic wasn't going to be working on it anymore, so it would've died.

This means we'll get whatever awesome game Epic releases next and still get our Gears game. Just like how we'll get Destiny from Bungie and still get our Halo. Omg this is exciting.

[BattleTorn]

Why try to spin it?

You realize this also could be considered a massive blow towards Playstation fan, cause this means Epic WAS going to go multiplat with Gears, but MS has now stopped them by securing exclusivity.

[Bolts-N-Rays1109]

Wow. Looks like we'll be getting another Gears! I really wonder what they're going to do with it?

[christocolus]

Damn...gears of war along with rod fergurson. Ms is going all out this gen. Damn this is huge. They just need to get cliffy b onboard too.

Black tusk already had multiple projects in the works so im sure with the help of rod fergurson ms will create a special team within the studio to tackle gears development.

[HammerKong]

good to see that black tusk will make multiple games ,there is new ip and gears and may be possibly anew ip now i get it why MS victoria and big park devs were shifted to black tusk ,black tusk new ip for 2015 and gears of war for 2016 or may be 2014.

[Minato-Namikaze]

This is the black tusk project, the other thing was just a tech demo.

[IG-88]

Don't know why people are disagreeing you? they must have not seen this yet:

http://n4g.com/news/1444631...

[RDF]

Blacktusk has only 2 projects atm. One is a new IP and the other is gears. Also something interesting too,Blacktusk is looking for a Senior Online Engineer. Could the next gears be a free to play multiplayer shooter? With the series showing its age after the last game,this seems the be a logical route.

[awesomeperson]

I'm asking this out of curiosity, I haven't caught up on the latest news.

Is it confirmed Blask Tusk still have their multiple projects? From what I've heard, Black Tusk is not a huge studio. If they're making a Gears game - you can guarentee a lot of effort will be piled into that, they won't want a half-assed game of one of Microsoft's biggest IPs.

Spencer himself said the E3 showing was similar to a tech demo. CBOAT said the spy-game *was* real, it likely got scrapped when Microsoft acquired the Gears franchise.

[DiRtY]

NICE!

I have mixed feelings regarding the Gears of War franchise though. The trilogy was sooo good, but who will develop it now?

If they can do it like Halo from Bungie to 343, this would be really really cool.

[Omar91]

"In addition, we are excited to announce that Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver, BC will take over development of the “Gears of War” franchise and that Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the “Gears of War” franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise going forward."

[Mills93]

Everyone goes on about Black Tusk and I've not the faintest who they are ! Must be have something special for all their backers

after seeing this though my thoughts are "Oh Sh#t"

[RDF]

Blacktusk was Microsoft Vancouver. I havent dug up their past games or IPs,sory.

[Golden_Mud]

Me , I'LL DEVELOP IT XDDDD

[lastofgen]

black tusk.

edit: I got a disagree for stating a hard fact? Erm, ok..

[Wikkid666]

Bring the trilogy to XBO with improved graphics and game play. All 3 games on one disc at $50.

[Jughead3416]

Dang, time for me to get an XBOX ONE? Don't know. The only reason I played the 360 was for Halo and Gears. So much for the Gears of War on PS4 rumors huh? Would've loved that. Microsoft throwing that money around.

[Lucreto]

Seems like something Microsoft would do. Instead of creating new IP's they buy up existing ones.

It must have cost them a fortune. It is a good buy and it will be interesting on what they do with it.

[christocolus]

Whats wrong with keeping existing ip while creating new ones? Blacktusk,remedy ,mgs osaka,lift, rare etc all have new ips in develpment. sunset overdrive, project spark,ryse,d4 titanfall,quantum break are those existing ips/ sequels too?

[vividi]

At least is first party now, and that is a good thing.

[lastofgen]

I think you missed all of the new IP's ms has announced for the xbox one.
There's nothing wrong with preserving older IP's while adding new ones as well.

[JasonKCK]

Actually, out of the new consoles MS has shown more new IP's.

I wish more would come to PC.

[thehitman]

Well with MS having gears avatar on their twitter feed this was easy to predict. I knew something was up when I seen that. Anyways big news indeed from MS, not sure how much legs is left on gears though.

This makes me more interested in what Epic is working on now since they haven't really produced much in a long time and we now know its not another gears they are working on.

[Kingdom Come]

Incredible news! Great to have Rod back as well!

[Golden_Mud]

Well , I won't understand , what's happening lately , a new game to be revealed tomorrow (Phantom Dust) , and not to forget the ultimate Crackdown 3 to be announced today I think , also Gears is under Black Tusk development from now on

[Ashby_JC]

I would love a crackdown sequel. I disliked #2 loved #1.

[MasterCornholio]

I knew Microsoft wouldn't let this one get away.

But they have to do a much better job than Judgement.

[lastofgen]

I agree.
As much as I loved the original trilogy, the way the judgement was created was just not good (I hated the cod-inspired elements of the game).

If they can make the new ones like the trilogy, then I'm all in.

[spicelicka]

I think we all know Judgement was quick cash in MS quickly commissioned because they thought Gears was gonna die. It had a much smaller budget, a subsidiary studio, and it was released within 1.5 years of gears 3.

Even then I think it was an exhilarating game for what it was. The voice acting and writing was much better and the combat was visceral.

But there is no way MS is gonna put that little attention on the next gears that's supposed to be built by a first party studio and is going to showcase what the Xbox One is capable of.

[mrpsychoticstalker]

Common sense, gears belong to xbox as xbox belongs to gears.

[GetTricky]

Gears is great and all. But it sounds like Black Tusk scrapped what they were working on for another Gears game. I kind of want "NEW" Ip's for my "NEW" system.

[Bolts-N-Rays1109]

Black Tusk probably has 2 development teams.

[jackanderson1985]

why would they have had to scrap the IP they were working on? they've over 100 employees surely they can do two at a time... also they own the Gears IP doesn't mean they need to start work immediately

[GetTricky]

Phil Spencer said that teaser was just a concept, not necessarily a game in development. Sounds like corporate speak for cancelled to me.

[lastofgen]

black tusk are working on multiple projects.

[RDF]

Sigh...no they are only working on one. A unannounced IP. Gears is the only confirmed IP atm. Someone did point out something that caught my attention. About a Gears 1,2 and 3 all on one disk. Thinking about that Microsoft may go down this route. I was thinking F2P Multiplayer but this idea sounds much more reasonable.

[Omar91]

I'm honestly somewhat disappointed in this news. Not because I didn't want Microsoft to buy the rights to gears, but more of the fact that now I need to go and buy a xbox one to play one of the only games I ever played on 360 (that and Halo). It's great for xbox gamers though and I do want to see another gears roll out, it just sucks because I was more then positive it would come to play station.

I guess the same can be said for games like TLOU, Uncharted,Infamous etc where if your an xbox fan you need a ps3 to play these games.

[spicelicka]

Well you can wait a year and save up. It's not coming out anytime soon

[joeorc]

@Omar91

the big Question is.

Will Microsoft put the new gears game as only an Xboxone game only ,or are they going to put it on more than just the xboxone @ Launch of the new game?

The big thing is many people that own the xbox360 will be asking this, but since it was stated Gears ran its course on the xbox360, though that was said before Microsoft bought the iP.

Microsoft will have to choose, to make it exclusive to the xboxone, or make more than one new gears game or many xbox360 owners may fell left out.

Since the xbox360 is still selling very well on the shelf. This is one of the things they are doing with Titanfall, so i imagine many xbox360 owners are wondering this very thing, i know my sister is she likes gears.

I Like Gear's also myself

[DoctorJones]

Well, that is the whole point of having exclusives, to encourage you to buy a system.

[GentlemenRUs]

So many people F5'ing... Anyway, I can't care less.

I lost interest after the 3rd game... Also was anyone surprised by this? I wasn't.

"if a publisher thinks about going multi, M$ are bound to whip out the checkbook" - A true story

Make my day N4G! Also the new N4G will have a system in place where you can only disagree if you comment why you disagree. So do us all a favor... State why!

[Saithraphim]

I really enjoyed GOW this is really big news! Does any one know if this was the announcement Phil Spencer was referring to?

[Jac5al]

Must be.

[PixelNinja]

I hope not, it'd be lovely to see some of the projects Microsoft has been hiding away from us.

[DEEBO]

great more games the better.

[Gabenbrah]

I am so down for more wall bouncing and playing some Horde 3.0 in the future and with Rod Fergusson leading! A dream come true, all they need is Cliffy B to design director and you've done it MS!

Although curious to know if what we saw of Black Tusk Studios game was GoW, as it didn't look anything like it.

[Manic2014]

So black tusk will be working on GOW and the new IP, Thats pretty cool.

[snookiegamer]

It's time for Gears to go 'Open World'...and some air/space battles too pls :)

[Jac5al]

It would be cool to see Gears on PS but would PS fans really want the 5th installment of a franchise on their system? Well...I guess more games is never a bad thing. No loss for me although, as I will be purchasing an xbox one once Halo 5 releases. Keep calm and game on.

[jackanderson1985]

i see a prequel in the making roughly about the war between the COG and the Union of Independent Republics just before the locusts... or maybe at the beginning of the war with the locusts...

[The Meerkat]

I so wanted to play Gears on my PS4.

But now the big question is what will Epic give me to play on my PS4?

[mo241]

excactly! This means new Ip from epic games.

[WeAreLegion]

Unreal Tournament, hopefully. ;)

[barb_wire]

Epic won't do crap with the PS platforms.. Bulletstorm and Unreal Tournament, yeah they set the PS3 on fire didn't they.

Epic have shown their disinterest in the PS platform, time and again and even if Epic did something, do you think they'd give Sony an exclusive like they did MS - not likely.

Another ding against Epic, is that most of the talent that made 'Gears' including Cliffy, left Epic a long time ago.

If Epic announce anything, it'll be a FPS and more than likely a timed exclusive for MS and not Sony.

[lonewolfjedi]

That unannounced new ip that y'all keep bragging about was just a concept piece black tusk is only working on gears of war

http://m.neogaf.com/showthr...

[JasonKCK]

Black Tusk is working on 2 games now http://www.gamezone.com/new...

[christocolus]

I think you are wrong. Did you even read the announcment? Blacktusk is a big studio with multiple projects. What they showed at e3 last year was an entirely differnt ip from gears.

http://n4g.com/news/1352683...

The studio head also says they will hire more devs(those familiar with the franchise) into the team.

[XtraTrstrL]

Epic lost their edge after becoming Microsoft's lap dog during Gears of War 1's run. Once they folded in negotiations and went from downing Microsoft for being greedy for wanting them to charge for map packs - to sounding like bots and agreeing with everything Microsoft said just shortly after, that's when I lost mad respect for Epic. It was obviously a huge bag of money that they were offered.

They haven't been the same Epic since. They lied about not abandoning the PC or other franchises. UT3 became a complete wasteland, the servers flatlined. They weren't working hard on other new IPs. They even lost their ability to keep Gears appealing eventually. I personally didn't even like Gears 2, multiplayer sucked on it, they ruined the shotgun. I'm not sure how good this new Fortnite game will be, but man, Epic definitely went a little sour on account of being under Microsoft for so long. The only thing I care about right now from Epic is their UE4 that other developers can use to make some cool stuff. If it was during the amazingly addictive Gears 1 days, I'd be like yeah, that's a big deal that Sony can't get in on this, but in 2014 the IP is really not so hot anymore - Microsoft can have it.

[Angainor7]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! :D hopefully make it like gears 3 and not like judgment! Thank you Phil!

[amobius]

Damn just as i hoping the gears franchise would come to playstation this happens oh well. Microsoft is going to milk gears for everything its worth i just hope the franchise doesnt turn to shit.

[mo241]

I see the positive out of this for xbox and all platforms. as seen with gears of war epic games knows how to make a game with good gameplay mechanics. not al lot of shooters got their own good unique gameplay mechanics But this way epic games will develop an brand new IP with great gameplay mechanics going multiplatform. Just look at bungie with destiny. And this way microsoft keeps one of their best exclusives.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

I guess I will have to get an X1 down the line now.

[pwnsause_returns]

thats good news

[hyabusha]

MY MOUTH JUST DROPPED!!!! OMG!!!! I'm So Happy!!!!

[Lionalliance]

This is big news?

[CerealKiller]

What a shame. Hopefully they make a PC version at least.

[FreakyFox]

I like the sound of this, now maybe Epic can focus on a really good Unreal game.

One can only hope.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Would love to know the financial aspect of this? Whay did they pay, what other promises are tied into this as well?

[JasonKCK]

I would imagine quite a bit was paid but probably pocket change to MS.

[ExitToExisT]

I'm looking forward to play a next gen Gears but i'm a bit worried a new studio taking over the development.

[Clarence]

Oh no! Sony is in trouble now!

The last gears was terrible.

[Lionalliance]

Then your comment doesn't make sense.

[AZWification]

Eh.I just truly hope that the next Gears of War game turns out to be better than Judgement!

[joeorc]

@AZWification

also agree, i played it on my sisters xbox360 and it just lacked a coheasive feel like gears 1 and 2 did, with black tusk at the helm it should be good. they are a fantastic studio

check out this info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

same peeps that worked on games like these

though back in 2007

Microsoft Studios disbands FASA Studio, best known for their work on the MechWarrior series.

[LexHazard79]

I'm liking the all about games approach theyve been taking thus far. Its one of the only things I can say they havent gone back on! They said since E3 they were gonna concentrate on games and they Have!!! Keep em coming Xbox!
Good to see MS take a chance on the IP which had alot to do with the xbox success!

[Twinblade]

Epic's biggest mistake. Lol.

[QuantumWake]

Well it can also be a good thing if you think about it. The bad thing is Epic gives up their biggest title that made all the money. The good thing is they don't have to be worried about MS asking them to make a Gears of War title every year which pretty much frees Epic to do whatever they want now. Such as develop a new IP and bring it too ALL platforms.

This is almost like Bungie parting ways with MS after the completion of Halo: Reach. It isn't exactly the same since Bungie was actually a first-party studio till the release of H3. But you get my point.

[Twinblade]

I guess Microsoft was really scared that Gears was gonna end up on Playstation at some point and that would be another exclusive gone.

[jacksjus]

This is good news for the X1, however once again MS' Had to backtrack on their original plans. I can't believe he had the nerve to say its about the fans. So at what point did he realize that it made sense to keep the game, because a few months ago he said it was dead?

[CertifiedGamer]

I always wanted Gears of War during my PS3 days, specially during the PS3 launch. It is a good series that inspired the developers like Naughty Dog with the uncharted series, gameplay style. Xbox One fans should feel good knowing they have a gaming series like that on their platform.

[lafloof11]

the order is my most anticipated game. thought i liked to experience gears but microshit is a very bad publisher: gears halo forza gears halo forza

[cyclindk]

There you go! Finally a strong positive move on Microsoft's part, no more placating, even I was getting sick of how many damn backpedals Micro has been doing since before launch... jesus...

Claims some big franchises and show your fans some good games, eff TV and eff Kinect and EFFFFF Cloud, game it up.

[PudgeySan]

Yawn.. I guess this is kinda news. Now they own the series, It would be nice to actually see them create a Triple A title instead of just buying them from third parties.

[polow got sol]

Wow ms got sony on the ropes in the exclusive department what a great purchase....look ma..no face lmao

[Commodore]

They got an exclusive that was always unofficially an exclusive. Let's slow the roll a tad bit.

[ocelot07]

Sort of gutted by this. Gears 1 and 2 where brilliant Xbox 360 games. Gears 3 and Judgement where awful. I have a PS4 and PC now and have not desire to buy a Xbox One. So I won't be able to play the new Gears of War game.

But Sony has a lot of great exclusives to keep me occupied this gen. With the last 2 titles being rubbish and a new studio at the helm I don't know what to think. Obviously if it turns out to be a must buy then ill be really gutted. If it flops or turns out to be average then noting lost.

[cyhm3112]

what MS doing is really really stupid. They originally target xbone as a media hub, they even feel ashamed to call it a console, remembered?? They only want to give it a few new AAA exclusives. But then it appears that direction didn't work. Now they changed their direction to treat it as a console. But it is too late. The hardware is significantly weaker than PS4. They don't have both the talents and the numbers of the Sony's first Party studios. Moreover New AAA Ip takes a long time to develop, 4 years at least. So evev if they want to start making a new ip now, that game will come out at 2018 at the earliest. They know that xbone is selling not well after the holiday's season. So they want to buy fast games!! Gears of wars!! xbox fans like Gears!! Why not try to buy Gears and make them buy xbones!!!

My whole point is it is too late for xbone to win, and it will lose by a huge margin no matter what they do, unless they buy all the following franchises: Metal Gears, COD, Battlefield, GTA, fifa!! That will cost them like 20 billions??

They will probably sell 20 millions in the best scenario.
PS4 will sell 120 m at least. Hopefully they learn a hard lesson and come back with a better strategy next gen.

[ShinraE5]

They are almost at 4 million now. They will easily pass 20 million.

And yes, Sony WILL win this generation. But that doesn't mean MS can't also do well.

MS is mixing new titles like Sunset OD, Project Spark, Quantum Break, etc. with well known franchises like Halo, Forza, Fable and Gears. In addition, they are getting 3PS such as we saw with Dead Rising and will see in Titanfall.

I wouldn't be so quick to ring the doom bell - people did that with the 3DS and PS3 early on and they rebounded to do very well.

[Edsword]

Great. This pretty much confirms that Epic will be multiplatform this gen.

[Tzuno]

Locust.

[TristanPR77]

Hope they at least make the game some justice and make it run 1080p @ 60ftp. The last game was garbage.

[urwifeminder]

Wow did not expect this great news chuffed did not play judgement as I had moved to pc at the time big news hope it is using unreal 4 engine.

[Flames76]

Hell yea i cant believe it micosoft has the rights to gears now.Which is great since epic is done with and has gone down hill.Hope to see a teaser trailer for gears of war at E3 this year.I said gears of war would never be on a playstation console and now this sealed the deal before epic could destroy franshise

[Ninjamonkey82]

Just as with Halo i have no reason to buy Gears of War now its not being made by those that brought the game to the table in the first place. I'm a great believer in the fact that games get worse over time and the more new people work on them the less the quality they become.

Hell i can name a ton off franchises that have went that way. I got my next gen consoles for games that will set them apart from each other and not just games that have been cried for by girly fanboys and this is one off them whims I'm afraid.

Black Tusk has everything to prove tbh and it will take them a few game before they get it right. I'm not willing to spend the amount off a next gen title every time they make a mistake learning. There's big games on each console on the way without having to rely on rehashes.

For me again more Microsoft money that could have went to new Ips gone in a game that has already run its course.

[xDHAV0K24x]

Some of you are funny. "look at what happened to Halo 4?" ...Comparing this move to 343 taking over for Halo yet ignoring the fact that Halo 4 is currently the top selling Halo EVER. Yeah the Halo 4 pop took a major hit when CODBO2 came out but the fact is there are millions of casual ppl that want the arcade shooter that is COD. What's more likely to happen; someone plays Halo or COD casually? C'mon! LOVE this news

[Apex13]

Fcuk. I have to get an xbone when this comes out. I was ok missing Titanfalls but Gears was the reason me and a whole lot if people got a 360. Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. I was happy to skip xbox this gen but not anymore

[Brad13186]

This is great news but it doesn't mean anything to me until Microsoft releases a $399 kinectless bundle.

[Excalibur]

I'm not sure how I feel about this, After the way GOW:J was handled Gears needed some new blood and fresh ideas but I'm not sure a whole new and different studio is the way to go, I guess time will tell.

For those saying they will now have to break down and buy an Xbox One, what makes you think the next Gears wouldn't be coming to the 360?

M$ would foolish to exclude 80 million potential customers in favor of 3 million, me thinks 83 million would be the smarter way to go.

[HonestDragon]

That is Microsoft's big game announcement? They bought the rights to Gears of War. Look, I really enjoyed the original trilogy to Gears of War. I never played Judgment and I probably won't given the kind of reception it got; however, this is hardly a surprise. Phil Spencer mentioned the company's interest in keeping Gears of War exclusive days before. So...this isn't that big of a deal. What is more concerning is where they will take Gears of War.

[Brazz]

This is a great victory for microsoft! Now GOW, one of the faces of xbox360, like Forza and Halo, will stay exclusive and will make X1 fans realy happy.
congratulations Microsoft, you are making some good moves lately.

[rafaman]

That's what I love about Microsoft ... If ms wants something, ms simply buy it, if ms is losing for Sony ms will do anything to win, no matter how costs

[psnCAShville_615]

seriously, i don't know any of my buddies that even care about this game!!not even the ones still on current gens!

this isn't smart @ all by Microsoft, should have put the money in something fresh? by something similar with your own name?

never played it honestly nor will i ever give two birds for it..

@rafaman... thank you bro, you just proved your beloved console holder is desperate idiots.

[PITTBULL83]

Are people missing the bigger picture ? It's not just about a game its also about being able to make a killer TV series.

[SoulSercher620]

I'll give MS props for this but the question now is how will they keep it fresh? A bunch of spinoffs wouldn't help the franchise much. Just look at Gears Judgment

[SpideySpeakz]

Typical move. This must be that 'new' game Phil was all excited for yesterday. Lackluster, and it's becoming a trend nowadays. NEW IPs, please. Xbox exclusives will continue to be garbage because MS wants to milk. GoW is DEAD, no matter how much they money-hat it.

[ShinraE5]

Sunset Overdrive
Quantum Break
Project Spark

So at least a few already in the pipeline.

[N4GJD]

They're bringing yet another shooter to the Xbox One! And this one heavily caters to shotgun whores from Mexico with high pings! How can anyone support Microsoft at this point?

[ThatOneGuyThere]

Gears was only ever popular to begin with because there was NOTHING ELSE to play on 360. Unreal looked much better than gears. But you would have had to of played both games to know that.

[corvusmd]

Sweet, this may breath new life into Gears. I've always loved the SP campaigns for Gears, but could never get into the MP (I never like 3rd MP from any game for that matter). Black Tusk seems to have TWO new huge exclusive titles currently in development now...this may turn into a huge studio really quick. What I didn't catch before, but actually is the most exciting part is that Gears and other XB1 games will start using Unreal 4 Engine which is supposed to be amazing....and with Epic working hand in hand with an XB1 exclusive studio...they should start optimizing that real quick. Looks like good things are coming.

Not to mention that Rod Furgesson (SP?) seems to always be behind projects that turn out golden...Bioshock Infinite and Gears of War...Although like I saw a few people say above, I would be interested in seeing Gears go open world, or perhaps do a Gears/Destiny type game.

[Demoa]

YESS love gears

[PickAShoe]

Gears of War One

[DOOMZ]

This is just AWESOME!!!!

[ShinraE5]

This is great for MS!

Between well known titles like Gears and Halo, new titles like Quantum Break, Project Spark and Sunset Overdrive, along with third party support like Titanfall, MS is showing they are indeed committed to games this generation.

On a purely Gears note, Judgment was solid but not as good as the others (PCF dropped the ball). But every franchise sees a bad game here and there - by no means is it a tired franchise.

We have seen a ton of halo games, Mario games, god of war games, assassins creed and cod games, etc. Series build up fan bases and giving them what they want isn't a bad deal.

[WilDRangeRrfc]

Fuck now I will have to buy X1 at some point in the future,really wanted to play Gears on my PS4

[90Supra]

'bout time they spend some money properly...

enough with that paying for timed exclusivity BS...

[captainexplosion]

I wish Microsoft would spend money on making games rather than timed DLC and buying pre-existing franchises.

[cell989]

well there goes my chances to ever play a GoW game :/

[hello12]

I seriously wouldn't rule out it coming to PC yet.

Microsoft might want to maximise profits buy having it on PC too.

It never will be on playstation, PC is a possibility maybe?

[cell989]

ok thats true I totally forgot about that

[hyabusha]

My life Is complete. Killer Instinct & Gears of War on Xbox One! I'm done!

[gnothe1]

they just need to add a locust an marcus to the KI roster an Im happy

[mediate-this]

For some reason i think micro is going to kill the geow series. Time for a reboot in my mind. I also cant see wjere there going to continue the story, maybe play as the locust maybe.

[Lukebb91]

If you dont like gears do not comment it does not concern you. As a long time fan of the franchise this is great, me and all of the other fans will get to see more historic events of the locust war or even the pendelum wars.

If you are one of those "o i want new IP's" go and tell Microsoft not complain on a news article about great news for fans of a certain game.

All of that aside i hope that it has a bigger budget like gears 3 and some input from karen travis again........ Maybe finally harper will be a playable character with a bit of campaign play or salton or brand or go all out and give all of them.

[captainexplosion]

As a big fan of the Gears series I am very disappointed with the news. The franchise is going to an inferior dev. Less people will get to play it. And I would rather play it on the PS4.

I dont really get why Microsoft did this. The series could have went multiplatform and Microsoft could have instead developed a new IP. So this way they lose a game. Im not sure why it was even important for them to buy Gears. Many consumers already thougt Microsoft owned the rights and even if it went multiplat many would choose the XB1 to play it on anyway. They should have just developed a new IP.

[ufo8mycat]

*yawn*

Gears of War was GREAT at the start, but it has the type of gameplay that gets boring, when its the same over what is it now 4 games?

Nothing has changed.

XBONE Gears will be the same old crap just better graphics.

Not really interested to be honest, unless they change the gameplay, instead of keeping to the same exact formula.

[Lenns]

I thought they always owned it. Anyways they really have to do something new with the gameplay. This series is the one that made me most fatigue, and i play AC and COD.

[orangechicken67]

Just let the franchise die the same with halo just let it die .

[iliimaster]

damnit now i have to get a xboxone i am Gearsofwar!

[SLUG]

thats good news xbox one is looking very good right now

[SLUG]

gears will be a rts game or a moba game just wait and see i would play both of them if this happens

[Azzanation]

This is great news for the Xbox fan base. Gears is as big as God of War is for Playstation. This gives MS console another great exclusive game to play. For the haters, remember that Bungie wanted to stop making Halo games at number 3. Since then MS pushed out 5+ Halo titles all acclaimed and great in there own ways.

Don't judge the Gears franchise by there last game in Judgement. That was a prequel to a series that Epic stared losing ideas for. Just like God of Wars Ascensions. Now in the hands of a new company they can breath new life into a franchise that we could all agree on died at number 3. Just like Halo, gears will be successful.

[Petebloodyonion]

Good move for Microsoft!
I just hope that they wait a bit before introducing the new Gears (like 2016).

[ma1asiah]

This is awesome news way to go MS, and even better news Rod Ferguson is at the helm of this project.

So after the disappointment that was GOWJ I have high hopes that the next Gears title will rekindle my love affair with this series.

I have so many questions (yet am very much aware that it is to early, and any assumptions made at this stage would prove to be nothing more than mere speculation) though will Gears stick with the Unreal engine or will Black Tusk use a different engine will it be a prequel or will it be an entire reboot/rethink of the series?????

I know Phil Spencer has stated earlier that the next Gears would have to be darker and grittier so that suggests a similar tone to the original Gears fingers crossed though would love the story to be as huge and as epic (no pun intended) as Gears 2 my favourite campaign in the entire series.

As a hardcore Gears fan I will be eagerly keeping an eye on all new developments with the next Gears.

Congratulations MS well done.

[mechlord]

The amount of comments her only serve to show how a big name GeOW still is, no use denying it.

In the meantime, i'll be playing my games on my vita, (PS3 broke, still waiting for a PS4) so i dont see the point in this. MS bought it? f**k it :) good luck. Why you guys push each others buttons over the most silly things like this one?

[bganci]

I wish they would have stuck to the original IP. I was extremely intrigued with what they were working on. This is sad news for me. I'm glad they own gears but i wish it wasn't black tusk.

[SynestheticRoar]

This is good news right, or dose this mean a Halo, Gears, Forza merry go round.

[SegaGamer]

Shooters shooters shooters. Yeah i see where Microsoft is going, down the shooters road again, just like the 360 and original Xbox before.

If they put more effort into making their consoles a more variety friendly console then it may appeal to the Asian audience.

[ma1asiah]

This is seriously so funny that I just couldn't resist sharing it here, as it is relevant to the article above

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[clouds5]

I hate 3rd person shooters, could never get into a GoW game. Wasn't planning on getting the xb1 anyway so... For the next ~2 years I'm fine with my PC+WiiU.

[urwifeminder]

Never seen so many comments on an article goes to show how much love for gears people have the other formats articles are a ghost town wow.

[GetRealOne]

I hope there cimes something as good as the first one. It was very good. But no other Genre like halo wars. Phil Spencer told that you can many genres with gears, please not!

[InTheZoneAC]

seeing how GeoW was pretty much the only game people coudl think of when talking about good xbox exclusives M$ had not choice but to overpay for this worn out franchise.

And it's another game I couldn't care less if it never made it's way to playstation. Have fun with it...

[8BitSoul]

Yeah, because more Gears of War is exactly what people have been asking for! It's not like we'd like to play anything new for a change...

[MuhammadJA]

Meh, here goes any chance of even having it on PC.