When Microsoft purchased Gears of War from Epic Games they also grabbed the Gears of War executive producer and director of production Rod Fergusson. Together Fergusson and The Coalition (formerly known as Black Tusk Studios) were tasked with creating the next installment in the franchise, effectively canceling a new IP that was in development.
Fergusson and his team have been hard at work bringing Gears of War 4 to life, but they aren't forgetting the previous Gears games that gave way to the fourth installment. Fergusson revealed to IGN that Gears of War 4 won't give in to the pressure of being like other popular shooters, "Rather than follow those games, I’d rather lead by being true to what makes Gears Gears. That’s why we’re going back to co-op, the two of you sharing that experience. It’s awesome."
Fergusson explained that The Coalition was going back to the basics, "We're going back to something personal, intimate, dark, and mysterious, being afraid of the boogeyman."
It was the need to make a true Gears game that lead to the E3 reveal we had. The reveal for the game wasn't marked by explosive action (there was some action) or a tease of the logo; the reveal was meant to echo the mood and tone from the original game. "We always thought of it as a tease. People expected a flash of logo and a Marcus poem, and we wanted to overshoot that. Why not do a tease that speaks to the mood and the tone of the game?"
Gears of War 4 is set to release on the Xbox One in late 2016.
