Next to Halo, Epic Games' Gears of War franchise is probably the second biggest property under the Microsoft Game Studios umbrella. Unlike Halo, however, the Gears IP is technically Epic's and that could potentially open the door for Gears to one day appear on other console platforms. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter sees this as a real possibility.
Speaking on Gametrailers' newest Pach-Attack! segment, he commented, "A while, ago [I said] that Epic regretted making Gears Of War [exclusively] for the Xbox 360, and I was quickly corrected by Mark Rein, who said: 'We don't regret a single thing.' Of course they don't regret it, because they're all very wealthy and they cut themselves a great deal. I guess what I really meant was future versions of Gears are at least going to be negotiated to allow them to make them on multiplatform unless Microsoft pays even more."
Pachter continued, "So the success of Gears allows Epic to squeeze even more money out of them for exclusives in the future. We'll see what Epic does, but I don't think you're going to get any new franchises after Gears that are console exclusives. Same thing - these guys all want to make money. It is a profit deal."
Epic VP Mark Rein said back in March, “We own Gears of War. We can do what we want with it. We have a great relationship with Microsoft, and they helped turn the game into a huge success for us, and we are pretty happy with the way things are going.”
There are basically two ways of thinking about this; Epic can take the cash from Microsoft and keep Gears Xbox 360 exclusive while also benefiting from the great marketing/promotional support Microsoft provides or Epic can forego that in favor of higher sales across two installed bases (360 & PS3).
Gears of War 3 is slated to launch next April, and we're very curious to see where the franchise goes after that (both in terms of story and platform).
6 Comments
April 27, 2010
It's an interesting theory and actuallt quite possible considering Epic owns the Gears IP. But I don't see it happening, especially not the first three games. Sure they'd sell more copies(and which studio doesn't want that) if they made a PS3 version but like most other games(shooters in particular) the 360 version would vastly outsell the PS3 version. But again, it's all about making money and regardless of how the 360 version would outsell the PS3 version it would still mean Epic is getting more bling.
April 27, 2010
Right, it wouldn't be any of the first 3 games I don't think. These have been signed as MS exclusives. But, after that, if there's a Gears 4 (and most likely there will be), perhaps Epic might decide to make it multiplatform. If I had to bet, though, I'd say MS will pay a good deal to make sure that doesn't happen. And at least if Epic stays 360 exclusive with Gears, each title gets fantastic marketing support (that saves Epic money too).
April 27, 2010
Someone made a statement before about why people attack patcher and this is why. Anyway they should just keep it on 360. What I once saw as a bad thing I am now glad that one time Sony exclusives have gone Multi-platform. Where sony is trying to take consoles; I believe it is not good for the consumer.
April 28, 2010
Any bump that they get from PS3 sales wouldn't measure up to the costs associated with going multi-platorm. Like you said, MS is footing a good portion of their marketing bill (which produce some of the more moving and memorable video game ads out there), not to mention the cash that they get from a MS exclusivity deal.
With a game as story and universe driven as Gears, I can only see one way to make a multiplatform game viable, have it follow up or spin off of the movie. In either regard, I can't see it being a Gears 4, per se, but another game within the same universe.
Epic has a great brand going with MS, I hope they don't sell that out..
April 29, 2010
I'm going to take the opposite position here from the other posters.. I think that as a general rule you should offer the game on multi-platforms across the board, consoles and PC.. the market is huge why would you limit yourselves to a single platform.. bring in more sales, more outlets for the game and increase your audience so each individual could decide which one they like the best and play it on the platform they choose.. to me it seems like basic economics.. do you want to sell 10pencils at 100$ from 1 store.. or do you want to sell 10000 pencils at 20cents a piece at 20 stores... I guess regardless of the costs I'm going to vote for game platform freedom
January 12, 2011
Simple logic, if all games were multiplatform they'd be no point in having different consoles, you'd only need one as they'd all be the same game anyway. So to boost console sales in a competitive market you need to offer something completely different and horde some of that uniqueness to yourself, thats why game exclusives are the lifeblood of the gaming industry.