Last year Microsoft bought the rights to the Gears of War franchise from series creator Epic, and also hired away former Gears director of production Rod Fergusson to oversee the franchise’s production at Black Tusk Studios. Now Black Tusk is no more, but that may not be a bad thing.
Black Tusk will now be known as The Coalition, Fergusson announced yesterday in a post on Xbox Wire. The reason is pretty simple. “When people hear 343 Industries, they associate it with Halo; when they hear Turn 10 Studios, they know that’s who makes Forza. Moving forward, when you hear The Coalition, we want you to think of Gears of War,” Fergusson writes.
Gears of War fans will immediately recognize the name as a nod to the Coalition of Ordered Governments (better known as COG) from the games. Fergusson says that the new name “speaks to who we are as a team, and what it is we’re working on.”
Aside from the name change, Fergusson also said that the newly-renamed studio will be sharing “more on what’s next for Gears of War.” What exactly this means for the series isn’t yet clear.
In April we reported that several testers had been playing a remastered version of Gears of War for the Xbox One. While Fergusson said that there was “no Marcus Fenix Collection,” he didn’t deny the remaster’s existence.
The devotion of an entire studio to the Gears of War franchise means that a new game in the series is definitely on the way, it’s just a matter of when we’ll see details.
At this point, we won’t have to wait very long to see what’s coming from The Coalition. Fergusson says that “Gears fans should be sure to tune in” to the Microsoft E3 press conference on Monday, June 15 at 4 p.m. PT.
To see Fergusson explain the name change in his own words and get a peek at the new logo in motion, see the video below.