The Xbox One will eventually give players next Call of Duty, Dead Rising, and Halo titles, but one popular franchise won't be making its way to the next-gen console any time soon, according to Microsoft. In an interview with Podcast Unlocked Microsoft Game Studios Corporate Vice President Phil Spencer explained that the series is currently in a rebuilding stage and that Microsoft and developer Epic are trying to figure out the best way to continue the franchise after Judgment did not perform as well as expected.
"I want to find a great Gears game, and I thought we did a good job with Judgment but I don't think it hit the level of quality we saw in the previous games...I think review scores showed that, sales showed that, and I really think that we need to take a step back with Epic and think about -- I don't want to call it a reboot, because it's kind of an overused term, but think about where that franchise goes and how to expand what it was," Spencer told Podcast Unlocked.
In addition, Spencer noted that he has not spoken much to Epic Games, but stated, "Gears is kind of on the backburner for them." While he would prefer that the company create the next entry into the series, he said he is open to the possibility a new developer taking up the series.
"Trying to find another team to do that game I think is possible, but you'd want to make sure you did that very carefully along with them to make sure we have the right thing in place."
Spencer also acknowledged that there are many challenges in store for whoever creates the next Gears of War game, due to the way the story has developed.
"I think that franchise would need to be, not reworked, but you need to think about how to expand the universe and what people are doing -- maybe take it more gritty, I don't know...But you'd want to do something with it because I think it did kind of run its course on 360...It doesn't quite have the story arc of a thing like Halo or something, at least the way it's played out in the games, and I think we'd want to pump that up."