Microsoft acquires Gears Of War rights

Microsoft has acquired the rights to the Gears Of War franchise, with them also announcing that Black Tusk Studios will be taking over development.

"Today we're excited to announce that Microsoft Studios has acquired the rights to the Gears Of War franchise from Epic Games, including rights to all existing and future games, entertainment experiences and merchandise," reads a statement from Microsoft.

"In addition, we are excited to announce that Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver, BC will take over development of the Gears Of War franchise and that Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the Gears of War franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise going forward."

Epic Games has provided the following statement from founder and CEO Tim Sweeney:

"Epic Games has reached an agreement to sell the Gears Of War intellectual property rights to Microsoft. We're very proud of the franchise we built in close partnership with Microsoft over the past decade and are happy that this agreement enables Microsoft to forge ahead with the Gears universe on their industry-leading platforms as Epic concentrates its efforts on new projects.

"Epic remains totally dedicated to supporting Xbox One and is licensing the Unreal Engine 4 technology to Microsoft in support of their future projects."