'Epic Didn't Really Know What to Do With the Franchise,' Cliff Bleszinski on the Gears of War Sale to Xbox - IGN

While Gears of War has ever been connected to the Xbox brand, the bid was created by Epic Games arsenic an exclusive. And though the bid yet recovered its mode to Microsoft's first-party portfolio, pb decorator Cliff Bleszinski shared his thoughts connected the sale.

IGN sat down with Bleszinski for a caller occurrence of Unfiltered and recovered retired however the crippled manager felt erstwhile it was announced that Epic Games would sell the franchise to Microsoft successful 2014. This was 2 years aft Bleszinski near Epic Games successful 2012.

"I honestly deliberation erstwhile Lee Perry [Gameplay Designer, Gears of War 2], myself, and Rod Ferguson [Producer, Gears of War] left, I judge that Epic didn't truly cognize what to bash with the franchise," Bleszinski tells IGN. He further believes the merchantability helped Epic money its aboriginal ventures and growth.

"They hadn't shipped a crippled successful a while. The [Unreal] motor was doing alternatively well, but they were increasing and they astir apt needed the income adjacent though they truly didn't cognize what to bash with the aboriginal of the franchise."

Bleszinski besides says that pursuing the sale, the lone idiosyncratic to telephone him astir it was Xbox's Phil Spencer. "As overmuch arsenic I loved Tim and Mark [Rein, VP of Epic Games] and we're inactive successful touch, but erstwhile the IP was sold to Microsoft the lone telephone telephone I got was from Phil Spencer. Right? And that's Phil. Phil is, arsenic they say, a man and a scholar."

After Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic, the improvement of the games was handed implicit to The Coalition, an Xbox Game Studios squad successful Canada. Under The Coalition, the squad developed Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.

Epic Games has since charted a caller way successful the post-Gears of War years, chiefly with the planetary deed Fortnite. Epic is besides continuing to make the next-gen crippled engine, Unreal Engine 5, which coincidentally The Coalition is utilizing for its adjacent game.

Bleszinski did stock his thoughts connected the caller games connected Unfiltered arsenic well, saying that helium doesn't consciousness the caller games person the aforesaid "heart" the archetypal trilogy has.

"I volition accidental astir the latest ones is that astatine the extremity of 1 of the caller ones, they made the subordinate take betwixt which quality lives and dies. And I'm like, 'Dude, really?' We committed to Dom dying. We committed to Maria being killed.'" The Coalition whitethorn person painted itself into a communicative "corner" according to Bleszinski.

For much connected Bleszinski and his caller book, 'Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games," cheque retired IGN Unfiltered.