14 DAY TRIAL // Rod Fergusson, the producer of the new Gears of War game that's coming to the Xbox One from Black Tusk Studios, emphasizes that the title is going to try and blend together the core tenets of the franchise while innovating in different areas, so that fans feel like progress is being done.
The Gears of War saga has been around for quite some time and it's more or less one of the biggest franchises that appeared on the Xbox 360 console, despite the fact that developer Epic Games was an independent entity and could have released it for many other platforms.
Microsoft has since bought the rights to the franchise and tasked Black Tusk Studios, now under the leadership of former Gears of War Producer Rod Fergusson, with making a new game for the Xbox One.
Managing fan betrayal is crucial with a sequel
Seeing as how Fergusson oversaw the development of all Gears titles, he knows a thing or two about the franchise and how to make sequels for it. According to an interview with OXM, the key thing to keep in mind is managing the betrayal of fans, as a sequel should retain enough old ideas to not turn away veterans, while innovating in order to not turn away newcomers.
"It's the same thing with all sequels," he explains. "This isn't a great way of phrasing it but I always talk about shipping a sequel to customers as 'managing betrayal'. They want something new but they don't want something so new that it doesn't feel like what they want. But if you put out something that's very familiar and is the same as the game they just had, then it's like 'I've already had this. This isn't new enough.'"
"You actually have to betray them enough to give them something new and surprising but not so much that they disconnect, and I think that is a big thing that we have to focus on. It's how we can innovate and bring something new to the franchise while at the same time really proving that we understand Gears - that this is the franchise that you know and love."
The new game respects the core ideas of the franchise while innovating in some areas
Fergusson has already explained this strategy to the Black Tusk team and the main idea, according to him, is to try and innovate where there's room for improvement, at least with this first sequel made by the all-new team.
"So I've already given multiple speeches to the team like 'here are the core tenets of Gears, here are the things that won't be changing, and here are opportunities for us to innovate that we think we can knock out of the park'."
The new Gears of War title is still in the early stages of development, so Xbox One owners shouldn't expect to see it in 2015.