Microsoft Studios acquired rights to Gears of Wars franchise
Microsoft Studios has acquired rights to the Gears of War IP, including rights to all future and existing games, merchandise and entertainment experiences from Epic Games.
Microsoft Studios will be handing the franchise over to Black Tusk Studios, a first party development house under the Microsoft Studios umbrella being lead by Microsoft Studios General Manager, Hanno Lemke and Studio Manager, Rod Fergusson.
It is unclear if the studio will be developing a new Gears of War game with the franchise but Lemke is excited to be able to share some news later in the year.
The studio is still untested with the franchise being their first game.
Epic Games also issued the following statement regarding the acquisition:
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.