14 DAY TRIAL // With Halo: Reach due out late in 2010 after a beta period that will start in about a month and supposedly the last game in the Master Chief series, Gears of War from Epic Games is one of the big Xbox 360 franchises that have not been talked about in quite some time. But it seems that on Thursday, gamers who still watch television can see Cliff Blezinski on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and will hear details about his next projects.
A Twitter status update from the celebrity reads, “Game designer Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) debuts his new game on Late Night next Thur. Set your TiVos! And your Xboxes.” Since Fallon took over the show, he has sought to introduce more gaming-related topics, bringing in Tim Schafer, the designer of Brutal Legend, as a host and challenging Tiger Woods himself to a round of virtual golf. He also offered one of the first live demos with Microsoft's motion tracking Project Natal, which is set to be released to the public at some point before Christmas.
A recent rumor offered up by Edge, coming from a trusted source they have inside the publishing business, says that Gears of War 3 is set to arrive in April 2011 exclusively on the Xbox 360. This meshes well with a statement made by Mark Rein, a vice president of Epic Games, that his company will not be releasing any new title during 2010, instead focusing on longer term projects.
It's also possible that Blezinski will not be talking about a core Epic project but about the also rumored Bulletstorm game that People Can Fly, a studio the company owns, could launch as soon as 2011 in collaboration with publisher Electronic Arts. Or maybe the Epic game designer will just announce that the next Gears of War will support Project Natal and leave it at that.