Cliff Bleszinkski, lead designer on the first three Gears of War games, said he believes the eventual sale of the series to Microsoft came as a result of developer Epic Games “not knowing what to do with the future of the franchise.”
Speaking with IGN and promoting his new memoir, Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games, Bleszinski said that once many of the core creators of Gears of War had left the company, Epic didn’t know where to take the series. Since the studio hadn’t shipped a game in a while and Fortnite had not yet been released, Epic needed a source of income.
“Epic had to keep the coffers full,” Bleszinski said. “They hadn’t shipped a game in a while. The [Unreal] engine was doing rather well, but they were growing and they probably needed the income even though they really didn’t know what to do with the future of the franchise.”