Microsoft Buys Gears of War IP January 27, 2014

Hot off the presses, Microsoft has announced the purchase of the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games.  Next to Halo, Gears of War is one of the biggest exclusive franchises that the Xbox 360 held over Sony platforms since the Playstation 3 launch.  However, up to today, the Gears of War property was owned by developer Epic Games, and if they chose, they could have released it on other platforms like the PS3.  With Microsoft buying the property, there is no chance of a Gears of War game coming to a non-Microsoft platform any more.

This is highly unusual for Microsoft, as they typically acquire IPs by purchasing the companies that developed them outright.  My guess is that Epic either wished to stay independent, or Microsoft had no interest in acquiring extra companies right now.  The details of the deal are still pretty secret, so we don’t know how much Microsoft paid for the franchise yet, but Microsoft did acquire Epic team member Rod Fergusson (seen here) as part of the deal.

Microsoft says they plan to announce their future plans with the IP later this year.  My bet is they may announce something at this year’s E3.