During a recent edition of IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP Phil Spencer commented on the future of the series and confirmed that Microsoft and Epic Games currently have nothing in development pertaining to Marcus Fenix and friends. Spencer wouldn’t write the series off, reassuring fans that he’d love to take Gears of War in another direction in order to deepen the universe as a whole.
Given that Gears of War: Judgment failed to live up to the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, it’s not surprising that Epic and Microsoft are willing to move onto different things for the time being. Spencer indicated that talks between Microsoft and Epic happen frequently and that he’d “love to have that conversation,” but the development house has indicated that “Gears is kind of on the backburner for them” as they work on other projects.
When the possibility of finding another developer came up, Spencer stated that Epic was the right team for the job, but was quick to confirm that finding another team would be a possibility if it became necessary. Even then, there would need to be some changes to the traditional Gears of War formula before such a project could be green-lit.
Obviously both sides are still scorned following lacklustre sales of Judgment — and there’s little doubt that the series will once again return as its hyper violent, Lancer-wielding self — but some time away from the series won’t do either side any harm. There are still plenty of other stories to be told within the Gears universe, so there’s no lack of source material for Epic to run with when it decides to tackle another iteration. For now, there are plenty of other Xbox One exclusives that’ll be made available for gamers — Titanfall recently being confirmed as exclusive for its entire lifespan.
“I think that franchise would need to be, not reworked, but you need to think about how to expand the universe and what people are doing — maybe take it more gritty, I don’t know. But you’d want to do something with it because I think it did kind of run its course on 360. It doesn’t quite have the story arc of a thing like Halo or something, at least the way it’s played out in the games, and I think we’d want to pump that up.”
Do you want a new Gears of War on Xbox One, Ranters? Do you think future Gears titles should be changed?
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You can follow Riley on Twitter @TheRileyLittle.
Source: Podcast Unlocked (via IGN)
