While it may not be as mainstream as Halo, Gears of War is without a doubt one of the top reasons to own an Xbox 360. The first two games have amassed sales of over 12 million and the trilogy wraps up with the highly anticipated Gears 3 this fall, but what happens to the franchise next?
Speaking to IndustryGamers at GDC, not only did Epic President Mike Capps reveal that he'd love to put the trilogy on PS3, but he also told us that Epic definitely has plenty of ideas for more in the Gears universe - whether that's a prequel or what remains to be seen.
"It's a really good question. If no one buys Gears 3 [laughs] I'll tell you what the future is right now. I'm hoping it'll be the biggest entertainment launch this year, but it might not be. So it is definitely a trilogy and the story is a trilogy; I think people will get that experience when they reach the end. I don't want gamers to feel cheated. At the same time, I've worked on the comics, we've got the novels... there's a ton of stories in this universe. There's certainly more space to tell a different story if we wanted to," he said.
"We don't have an exact plan for 'here's what we're doing next' but I think we'll wait and see and maybe give folks a little rest for a while."
So what happens post-launch of Gears 3 is to be determined, but Epic may also have an exciting new IP up its sleeve. We asked Capps about launching another new triple-A IP. "Yes, we're always thinking of doing that. Bulletstorm, Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade are the ones we've done recently," he said.
Those games, however, came from outside teams, People Can Fly and Chair Entertainment. What about the internal team? "So yeah, we have been working on some internal IP that would be from the Raleigh studio. Nothing to say yet, but we're a pretty small company, so it's hard to make an all-hands-on-deck Gears of War title and something new."
We asked Capps if the new IP would be unveiled at E3, but at this point they're laser focused on Gears 3. "I want everyone to be wearing a Gears 3 propeller head or whatever at E3," joked Capps.
