'Gears of War' boss Rod Fergusson leaves to take over 'Diablo'

After 15 years of working on Gears of War games, The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson announced he's leaving the Microsoft franchise to join Blizzard Entertainment. Starting in March, he'll "oversee the Diablo franchise." Fergusson has been a part of every Gears game released so far, dating back to his role as a producer on the original -- check out his comments on updates to the "roadie run" in 2007 -- and he's been in charge ever since Microsoft acquired the franchise in 2014.

His departure comes as Microsoft is expanding its ownership of development studios with new acquisitions like Ninja Theory and Obsidian, and considering different paths of distribution by pushing Xbox Game Pass and streaming. That directly impacts the Gears franchise, which is about to launch a PC-only tactics spin-off.

Meanwhile, Blizzard recently revealed it's working on Diablo IV, which comes after many players had a negative response to news of the Diablo Immortal mobile game. We'll probably hear more about those games, and everything Microsoft has planned for the future of Gears, sooner rather than later.