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Microsoft's dedicated 'Gears of War' studio has a new name
Microsoft's done it again. After buying the Gears of War franchise last year, it's tasked one team to focus exclusively on that franchise and change its name in doing so. Sounds familiar, right? Canada's Black Tusk Studios is now known as The Coalition (a nod to the series' Coalition of Ordered Governments' hulking soldiers) and, you guessed it, the developers have one job: making Gears of War games. In a post on Xbox Wire, studio head Rod Fergusson says that like 343 Industries and Halo, he wants you to immediately associate The Coalition with musclebound meatheads wielding machine guns with chainsaw bayonets. So, a "real" game every few years with plenty of less-than-awesome output to fill in those gaps. Got it!
'Gears of War' looks like the next game to get an Xbox One remaster
Like it or not, ports of classic games to the latest consoles are still all the rage... and Microsoft appears eager to cash in on the trend. Both Kotaku and Polygon report that Microsoft, Black Tusk Studios and Dirty Bomb's Splash Damage are working on a remastered Xbox One version of at least the first Gears of War game. It's not certain just how far this update to the cover-based shooter will go, but it supposedly includes both improved in-game graphics (such as sharper textures and improved lighting) and "reworked cutscenes" courtesy of animation studio Plastic Wax. This sadly wouldn't be a genuinely new game, then, but it wouldn't be surprising if the leaks are on the mark. Gears of War was one of the big money-makers for the Xbox 360 in the console's heyday, and it'd likely attract plenty of gamers with fond memories of blasting Locust drones.
Microsoft buys Gears of War franchise, new game in development
Microsoft now owns another major franchise tied to its Xbox game consoles: Gears of War. That includes "rights to all existing and future games, entertainment experiences and merchandise," and it looks like a new game (likely for Xbox One) is already in production at Black Tusk Studios in Canada (Microsoft actually teased a project from Black Tusk back at E3 2013 during the company's press briefing). The franchise's former director of production, Rod Fergusson, will take on oversight. The Gears of War franchise was exclusive to the Xbox 360 (and later on PC as well), and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games used the third-person shooter series to show off its engine's graphical chops. Beyond being a graphical showcase, however, Gears of War developed a loyal following among online console gamers -- last year's Gears of War: Judgment was the first entry in the franchise co-developed by Epic and Bulletstorm dev People Can Fly, and it was expected to be the final entry in the series. Beyond a new entry in the massively popular shooter franchise, we expect re-issues (perhaps prettied-up re-issues) will happen at some point (a la Tomb Raider's "Definitive" Edition). At the very least, Gears fans can rest assured that more tales of meaty space marines taking down Locust are on the way care of Microsoft.
