Epic sells Gears of War franchise to Microsoft

[Raynor]

Microsoft Studios acquires rights to Gears of War franchise

Today we're excited to announce that Microsoft Studios has acquired the rights to the “Gears of War” franchise from Epic Games, including rights to all existing and future games, entertainment experiences and merchandise. In addition, we are excited to announce that Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver, BC will take over development of the “Gears of War” franchise and that Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the “Gears of War” franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise going forward. We had a chance to chat with Phil Spencer, Head of Microsoft Studios, Hanno Lemke, General Manager of Black Tusk Studios at Microsoft Studios, and Rod Fergusson about the big news.

http://news.xbox.com/2014/01/games-micr ... ars-of-war

Epic probably realised they can't milk that franchise any longer and decided to sell it off.
More interesting is what could this mean to Unreal series? They sold their biggest IP and besides Unreal Engine what's left? We haven't heard much about Fortnite since the announcement. New Unreal game?

[Feralidragon]

Unlikely, since UT isn't ADS based (like every single FPS Epic released afterwards afaik, since that's the kind everyone does these days, CoD syndrome all over them), and most of the people who truly could bring it to light (the ones who knew how it should "feel" like) are no longer there.
Generally when a product fails as a sequel (UT3, pretty much a Gear-ized UT), the company stops producing it completely, and that's what happened with UT. Don't hold your hopes up.

[Raynor]

I think there rather could be market for new Unreal single player title. Arena shooters are niche, especially in today's CoD and consoles world. But good single player games are generally well received and "unreal" is a known word in industry.

[Feralidragon]

Well, yeah, Unreal would probably stand a chance, although it had a somewhat "failed" sequel of its own as well, but it was one that can easily be forgotten.
But it would probably need an higher investment than doing UT, and given Mark Rein's excuse for the non profitable situation of Bulletstorm (a lame one btw), I am not too sure about a new Unreal either, although it indeed has the possibility of being absolutely epic in case they did though.

[Red_Fist]

First thing that comes to my mind is all the "Unreal" "UT" stuff we been making and using for the last 10 years will all the sudden be illegal to use or make.

[papercoffee]

First thing that comes to my mind is all the "Unreal" "UT" stuff we been making and using for the last 10 years will all the sudden be illegal to use or make.

And why do think so?

[Dr.Flay]

Unreal is a different series to Gears of War.
Unreal has not been sold (I doubt M$ would want it).
Only if people have used GoW resources in Unreal games will there be a problem.

[Red_Fist]

First thing that comes to my mind is all the "Unreal" "UT" stuff we been making and using for the last 10 years will all the sudden be illegal to use or make.

And why do think so?

Oh just like everything else, the big names come in a squash out the little guy, like google, Microsoft, etc etc.

[Feralidragon]

First thing that comes to my mind is all the "Unreal" "UT" stuff we been making and using for the last 10 years will all the sudden be illegal to use or make.

And why do think so?

Oh just like everything else, the big names come in a squash out the little guy, like google, Microsoft, etc etc.

Just like everything else, the big names only take things they deem worth their investment. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) Unreal and the overall UT series is no longer worth of that kind of investment given nowadays tendencies on gaming, and thus they won't get picked up by them.
GoW on the other hand is still highly popular, and thus worth of further investment for them.
Epic Games doesn't want to invest in games anymore anyway, they became pretty much solely the kind of company that does the tools themselves and nothing much beyond that.

[Metalfist]

I think it was a good move of Epic, better sell it now as it has run long enough. This way they can still get a lot of money of it and in the best case scenario Microsoft can bring refreshing ideas to the franchise. Epic stated that they wanted to move on to other projects instead of dedicating their time to Gears which is logical too. Epic is friends with Microsoft and they said they will still assist Microsoft with Gears development.

We’re very proud of the franchise we built in close partnership with Microsoft over the past decade and are happy that this agreement enables Microsoft to forge ahead with the ‘Gears’ universe on their industry-leading platforms as Epic concentrates its efforts on new projects,” said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney.

So they are creating more time + manpower for themselves (remember they have a whole GoW-size team over now), maybe for the development of the new UnrealEngine (UDK4?) or another game or Fortnite as I seen this at the carreer section of Epic:

Epic Games is looking for a Concept Artist to join the team working on Epic’s next big blockbuster, Fortnite (http://www.fortnitegame.com).

Cliff Bleszinski suggested something like Unreal + Skyrim open world and I read UT is unlikely to get a sequel, because of the huge opinion differences between players (one wants more like UT99, other like UT2k4 etc.). But then again Cliff Bleszinski left Epic, so who is really left at Epic for a true sequel to Unreal? And who knows what Cliff will do next (maybe something related to Unreal)?

[papercoffee]

Epic Games is looking for a Concept Artist to join the team working on Epic’s next big blockbuster, Fortnite (http://www.fortnitegame.com).

Hm ...I should send my application documents to them.

[Metalfist]

It's located in Cary, NC
http://epicgames.com/careers

[papercoffee]

It's located in Cary, NC
http://epicgames.com/careers

I know

[Wormbo]

But then again Cliff Bleszinski left Epic, so who is really left at Epic for a true sequel to Unreal?

Tim Sweeney and *cringes* Mark Rein.

[Feralidragon]

Tim Sweeney is probably already working on Unreal Engine 5 (considering when he supposedly started UE4 and when it was first announced), and as for Mark Rein, he would probably make the team focus in console, then make a poor port to PC, and then blame piracy for the lack of success of the PC version... (still we probably would have at least a nice Unreal sequel)