Anyone owning an Xbox 360 for a long time is more than just "aware" of the Gears of War franchise. With the game being one of the highlight titles of the current generation, there has been a huge expectation of seeing the franchise make its mark on the next generation Xbox One. And while we don’t know if that’s a probability in the future, some new information could show otherwise.
Microsoft executive Phil Spencer was recently in an interview with Famitsu, talking about the future and the prospects of the upcoming Xbox One. Spencer was asked what the company had planned for the future of the Gears of War series, considering the fact that the series has already released four titles on the 360, but there's yet been no mention of the game planned to hit the new system.
While not wanting to reveal too much, Spencer stated, as translated by DualShockers: “Gears of War is developed by Epic Games, and they’ve been our partners for a long time on Xbox 360. You should ask Epic Games about what they want to do. We haven’t announced anything yet about Gears of War, but we hope to bring it to Xbox One in some form. However, there’s nothing more I can tell you at this time.”
Even though he was a bit cryptic in his comment, Spencer revealed that the future of the Gears of War seriess is completely dependent on Epic Games’ ambition. We may assume that Microsoft already has plans to carryover the series over to the next generation, but its seems like the company will wait and see what Epic has planned.
Another theory, when Spencer states that he has a “hope” that the Gears of War series will land on the next generation in some form, is that the partnership between Epic and Microsoft has mellowed down a bit following the under-achievement of the previously released Gears of War: Judgment as compared to the previous entries in the series.
In the first month of release, Gears of War: Judgment experienced comparatively poor sales figures compared against previous GoW games. Back in April, Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz estimated the first-month sales of Gears of War: Judgement to be around 420,000 units, which is less than a quarter of the two million Gears of War 3 the company managed in September 2011. Reviews of the game were also less than stellar.
Moreover, the departure of Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski could also have some effect on Microsoft’s ambition with Epic. For those who are unaware of it, Bleszinski announced his departure from Epic in October of last year. Epic is yet to reply to questions about a new GoW title for the next-gen console.
