After an excellent trilogy of games and a recent prequel title, Epic Games has sold their Gears of War franchise to Microsoft. The deal includes the intellectual property, all existing games and assets, and also the rights to make future games in the series.

It’s also been announced that the next game in the franchise, which no title or information exists for, will be developed by Microsoft’s Black Tusk Studios, and led by Rod Fergusson, who was a producer on the first three games.

Microsoft has transferred a big franchise to another developer successfully in the past, so this is not a new experiment. After Bungie departed their Halo franchise, Microsoft put it in the hands of 343 Studios, who were behind the HD re-release of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 4, and the expected Halo 5.

Where would you like to see the Gears of War franchise go? Should they start an entirely new storyline with new characters, or should they start a new storyline with the existing characters?

[Source: Game Industry]