Gears of War Remains Xbox 360 Exclusive for the 'Foreseeable Future'

Epic Games' Gears of War franchise will remain an exclusive for the Xbox 360 platform, at least for the foreseeable future, as Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the series, confirms that the relationship between the developer and Microsoft is a strong one.

The Gears of War series is one of the most important Xbox 360 exclusives out there, but Epic Games, the developer of the series, continues to hold the rights to the franchise, meaning it can always decide to release it for other platforms.

Earlier this year, Epic Games boss Mike Capps said that the PlayStation 3 console, owned by Microsoft's arch rival, Sony, could see the release of a Gears of War game in the future.

Now, Bleszinski, the creator of the series, talked with GameTrailers at E3 2011 about the relationship between the developer and Microsoft, the publisher of the Gears of War series up until now.

"I would love to work on new IP, I'm a big believer in just creating new universes," he told GameTrailers.

"We have a great deal with Microsoft. It's a great setup, I mean multiplatform games... Call Of Duty's huge, right? But the way that we have our setup with Microsoft, when you combine the marketing benefits, the usability benefits, them helping out with dedicated servers... it just makes more sense [to us] for Gears Of War to remain an Xbox exclusive for the foreseeable future."

Such a move wouldn't be out of the ordinary, as BioWare's Mass Effect series saw the first title be published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 and PC, but, with the second game, which was published by Electronic Arts, also appeared on the PlayStation 3, albeit a year later than the PC and Xbox 360.

According to Bleszinski, however, it seems that the Gears of War franchise won't follow in the footsteps of Mass Effect just yet.

Gears of War 3 is set to appear only for the Xbox 360 on September 20.