Microsoft purchases Gears of War IP from Epic

Microsoft has purchased the ownership rights to Gears of War from Epic Games.

With Epic no longer developing, the reins for the continuation of the ever-popular third-person shooter franchise have been passed to new developer Black Tusk Studios, based in Vancouver. Black Tusk was recently founded by Microsoft.

Stewardship of the series has been handed to Rod Fergusson, who recently left publisher 2K. Fergusson worked as a producer on the first three entries in the series (last year’s entry, Gears of War: Judgement, was developed by former Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly).

With Epic seemingly more and more interested in developing for Sony’s Playstation 4, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Microsoft has stepped in to ensure that Gears of War remains exclusive to Xbox. With over 20 million lifetime sales of the franchise, it’s been a big money-spinner for the Redmond giant and has become as synonymous with Xbox as that other console juggernaut, Halo. Undoubtedly Microsoft would like that state of affairs to continue, though Judgement didn’t fare too well at retail compared to its forebears. Time will tell if that was a blip or if the long-term popularity of the franchise is waning.

Our very own Dan Horowitz actually recently looked back at a defining moment from Gears of War just the other day, so check it out.