Though it started out as an Epic Games creation, after Microsoft purchased the Gears of War franchise, they set up The Coalition as a studio dedicated to handling the series and its future. It’s an approach they’ve taken with Halo as well, while other Microsoft studios, like Turn 10, also remain focused on a single property. But a question that many people often ask these studios is- are these franchises all they’ll ever work on?
Well, at least in the case of The Coalition, that’s not necessarily true. Recently, studio head Rod Fergusson was asked in an interview with IGN (which you can view below) if there’s a chance The Coalition will ever end up working on an entirely new IP. His answer? “Never say never.” Fergusson said that though The Coalition was set up as a studio with the primary objective of looking after the Gears property, and though they have their hands full with that for now (with Gears 5, Gears Tactics, and Gears POP!), they’re not bound to only doing that.
“It’s a terrible answer, but it’s a ‘never say never’ thing,” said Fergusson. “We’re The Coalition. We wanted to brand ourselves around the franchise. We were looking at Turn 10, and we were looking at 343, and going, ‘okay, these are dedicated studios to a dedicated franchise.’ And so, we’re very dedicated to the Gears of War franchise, but that’s not to say we won’t do other things.”
“When I signed on in 2014, I had no idea we were gonna do a POP-based mobile game,” he continued. “And so, as we look beyond… one of the things about keeping key creative talent is you potentially want to go into other things, creatively. But right now, it’s really all Gears all the time. The fact that we’re able to go to all these different places with the comic books, novels, movies, and three different games- it’s a lot.”
Gears 5 launches September 10 this year for the Xbox One and PC- will it be launching on Xbox Scarlett eventually as well? Fergusson says it’s too early to say right now.