14 DAY TRIAL // The brand new Gears of War title that's currently in development at Microsoft's Black Tusk Studios will innovate and impress thanks to the eager team present at the Canadian developer, according to Microsoft itself.
The Gears of War franchise was developed by Epic Games and, thanks to a great partnership with Microsoft, the series appeared exclusively on the Xbox 360, even if the first title did receive a PC release after its console debut.
The third-person shooter series brought forth quite a lot of innovative mechanics that have since permeated the whole genre, from cover-based shooting, to the design centered around different brawls.
Even if the series appeared only on the Xbox 360, Epic Games still owned the franchise and got to decide when it would release new installments and for which platforms.
After the Xbox One console debut, however, Epic was seemingly content with letting the series gather dust, but Microsoft soon stepped in and acquired the rights to the whole franchise.
It quickly tasked its newly-formed Black Tusk Studios division with creating a brand new installment in the series and now Microsoft Game Studios' Creative Director, Ken Lobb, has talked a bit with Edge about the new project and how he trusts Black Tusk's Chuck Osieja.
"I think the reality is what we have is innovative Gears Of War. That’s what I believe they’re going to make. They’re an internal studio, but the reality is it’s cool to have [an IP] that can be a grand slam right out of the gate," he said.
Lobb also emphasized that the team was working on different ideas using Unreal Engine 4 and it was more than delighted to start on the Gears of War franchise after Microsoft got the rights.
"The concepts they’ve been toying with are awesome. You take what they were thinking about and their expertise on Unreal Engine 4, because that’s what they’ve been playing with since their founding, and really go with the IP."
"Again, this was a mutually agreed thing. It’s not, ‘Here’s this thing you must take.’ That’s not the way Phil [Spencer, former head of Microsoft Game Studios, now Xbox boss] works; that’s not the way we work."
Unfortunately, seeing as how Black Tusk has barely started working on Gears of War, you can bet that some actual details will appear probably next year or at the earliest in late 2014, so don't expect anything at E3 2014, for example.