14 DAY TRIAL // Epic Games, the developer of the upcoming Gears of War 3 third-person shooter, has revealed through the creator of the series, Cliff Bleszinski, that it approached Microsoft to put the star of its Halo franchise, Master Chief, in the upcoming title.
The Gears of War series is the second most popular Xbox 360 exclusive franchise out there, being overtaken only by Microsoft's own Halo series, which saw Master Chief, the protagonist of many games from the franchise, take down massive alien armies.
As you can imagine, Epic Games pondered the possibility of adding the iconic character into its Gears of War franchise, especially given the company's fondness of hiding various Easter Eggs in its titles.
According to Gears creator, Cliff Bleszinski, it seems that Epic actually went to Microsoft in order to get the appearance, but the company turned the proposition down.
"I'll let you in on a secret. I actually approached Microsoft on getting Master Chief into the game, but those guys are kind of squeamish," Bleszinski told Complex magazine.
"One of Halo’s successes is that it’s a soft M [rating]. Gears pushes it further. I’m creatively comfortable with that, though it can limit what you do. If you had to break it down, I'd say that Gears is like Mortal Kombat and Halo is like Street Fighter,” he joked.
If Master Chief appeared in the game, Bleszinski revealed that the company would think of some very creative ways in which he might be killed during the story or the multiplayer matches of the third person shooter.
“If we were to get Master Chief, we'd get his model, put him in a COG suit, make it blow up, and do some test animation work. We'd have to see what his head looks like being blown to smithereens or how his arm would look getting sawed off," he said.
As you can imagine, Microsoft and the legions of Halo fans might not have wanted something like that happening to Master Chief.
What do you think? Should Gears of War 3 still feature characters like Master Chief even if it's going to really abuse them?