Today Microsoft announced some news that may not be a surprise to anyone, yet we are happy about it. Two major news items broke via the Microsoft Xbox News Wire this morning. First of all Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games and secondly, Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the “Gears of War” franchise, has joined Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver.
Via the Xbox News Wire we get some information from Phil Spencer, Head of Microsoft Studios, Hanno Lemke, General Manager of Black Tusk Studios at Microsoft Studios, and Rod Fergusson about the announcement which can be read in full here.
Epic Games also made on official statement on Microsoft’s website:
“Epic Games has reached an agreement to sell the ‘Gears of War’ intellectual property rights to Microsoft. We’re very proud of the franchise we built in close partnership with Microsoft over the past decade and are happy that this agreement enables Microsoft to forge ahead with the ‘Gears’ universe on their industry-leading platforms as Epic concentrates its efforts on new projects,” said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. “Epic remains totally dedicated to supporting Xbox One and is licensing the Unreal Engine 4 technology to Microsoft in support of their future projects.”
We should hear more about next entries into the franchise ‘later this year’ according to Hanno Lemke.
