Cliff Bleszinski, creative director at Epic Games, isn’t ruling out the possibility that the “Gears of War” franchise will be terminated after Gears 3 launches in September.
Although the next version has been called the last of a trilogy, Bleszinski told a gaming website that if Gears 3 sells well enough then Gears 4 is “just business 101.”
“You guys are talking about this being the end of a trilogy, the last of three parts,” RipTen’s Chad Lakkis said in his interview with Bleszinski. “If the fan interest is still there, considering the impact of the characters you have developed and the following they have, are you open to continuing the brand in some way?”
“Well, there’s always the Peter Jackson route, right? Do The Hobbit or something like that,” Bleszinki replied.
Jackson produced the Academy Award-winning trilogy “Lord of the Rings.” His fourth project is “The Hobbit,” a prequel to the Ring books.
“I mean, we’re business people,” Bleszinski said. “Gears 1 and 2 sold about 6 million copies, so if this game comes out and, God willing, sells 8 or 10 million it would be completely dumb to not do another one, right? It’s just business 101.
“So, I mean, the key is figuring out what’s appropriate. What makes sense for this connected world that we’re moving into? So, that remains to be seen. That’s the million dollar question…”
Gears 3 is already off to a terrific start, having sold more than 1 million copies through a pre-order process.
Plus, last week Epic and Microsoft, the Gears series publisher, won approval to sell Gears 3 in Germany, which just happens to be largest videogame market in Europe. Gears 1 and 2 were banned from sale in their original form and could not be advertised or promoted. (Read details here and here.))
Read the full RipTen report here.
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