Epic Games Hands Over Gears of War Franchise to Microsoft

Microsoft bought the rights to everything involving Gears of War and also took Rod Ferguson who was the executive producer and director of production for the first three titles in the series which were arguably the most successful releases in the Gears of War franchise.

Microsoft has also given a no-name studio the right to develop the next entry into the Gears of War series. Black Tusk Studios who is owned by Microsoft was suppose to start developing a series back in 2012 that would overthrow the Halo series. Two years later, that has yet to happen however Black Tusk Studios does have an unannounced game that has yet to be announced besides the next Gears of War title.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer said that Black Tusk Studios "has a passion for the shooter space".

"Black Tusk has assembled a world-class team with deep experience and passion for the shooter space, and specifically the Gears of War franchise."

Spencer was not the only one to release a statement regarding the purchase of Gears of War from Epic. Epic Games' Tim Sweeney said that they are "proud" the Gears of Wars franchise and are "happy" with reaching this agreement with Microsoft.

"Epic Games has reached an agreement to sell the Gears of War intellectual property rights to Microsoft. 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. Epic remains totally dedicated to supporting Xbox One and is licensing the Unreal Engine 4 technology to Microsoft in support of their future projects."

via IGN and Black Tusk Studios wiki