Microsoft's next Gears of War game isn't going to be released any time soon, with the title still in the early concept and prototyping stage. Studio manager Rod Fergusson said on the 'Black Tusk Rodcast' (viaIGN): "We're only 100 days in." Asked if the studio intends to stick to the canon of the Gears of War books and graphic novels, he said: "Yes, as best we can. I believe fun is greater than canon. That's not to say I'm going out of my way to destroy canon, but if I get to a situation that may invalidate a comic book or a book, I'm going to make that fun decision." Microsoft acquired the Gears of War IP from Epic Games and announced that Black Tusk would be assuming development duties. In March, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the move was a win-win-win solution for Epic, the Xbox maker and the gaming community, noting that the company agreed to sell Microsoft the Gears of War IP because it didn't want to make any more games in the series. "We weren't planning on building any more Gears games we were just going to let that sit on the shelf for a decade or more, in case it had any future value to us. "It was one of those rare moments when both Epic and Microsoft were able to make a business that was obviously best for the community. Much better to have Microsoft building Gears games than for it to be sitting on the shelf unused by Epic. "Selling an IP like that is a rare thing," Sweeney added. "Most companies look at it as their crown jewels but at Epic we had a practical view of it: We weren't going to build it and we realized the world wanted more Gears of War." Source CVG.
