Before they became The Coalition, and the custodians of Microsoft’s Gears of War franchise, they were known as Black Tusk Studios. Back during E3 2013, they debuted what seemed to be a brand new IP, an exciting new concept that got many intrigued. That IP was later obviously scrapped in favor of new Gears of War projects (and official statements would go on to variously say that it never existed, and was just a concept pitch), but in an interview with Polygon, The Coalition finally came clean, discussing the original concept.

“Microsoft was in discussions with Epic. We were hugely invested in what we were working on. You don’t spend a year and a half working on a game without getting attached to it. There was a lot of discussion,” said studio manager Mike Crump, adding that the decision wasn’t easy.

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t some people on the team who were disappointed when they found out the thing they’d been working on for so long was going to be shelved.

“If you’ve been in the game industry long enough, you’re going to go through project cancellations. People go through this period of mourning a bit. You have to give them that space and time to go through that, the sense of loss that people have around something they’re invested in.”

The final decision was a “no-brainer,” according to Crump. “We went around the table and everybody was in favor of going for Gears of War,” he added.

I can imagine it being creatively stifling and disappointing, but on the whole, it seems that the new studio has settled into its role quite nicely.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launches next month on Xbox One, with a PC release to follow; Gears of War 4 will launch exclusively on Xbox One some time next year.

A Gears of War remaster for the Xbox One has been requested, rumored, and then denied multiple times over the last year or so, especially after Halo: The Master Chief Collection was confirmed to be a thing. Now, it seems like, in spite of Microsoft’s insistence to the contrary, a Gears of War remaster may be headed to the Xbox One.

This news, however, will be bittersweet- unlike the full trilogy collection remaster, similar to the Master Chief Collection, that many were expecting, this remaster seems to be limited solely to the very first game.

However, if the quantity is disappointing, the quality certainly won’t be, according to the insiders who broke the news to Polygon in the first place. This remastered Gears of War for Xbox One will, it appears, include updated visuals and reworked cutscenes, courtesy of animation studio Plastic Wax. Polygon got to see stills of a fresh, new opening cutscene of the game, which now offers a newer, fresher look at the Locust invasion that forms the backdrop to the series.

If this remaster does exist – and at this point, there is no reason to doubt that it does – then it will indicate a complete reversal in Microsoft’s stance, who have stated, multiple times, that a Gears remaster was not in the works.

Nonetheless, offering players a chance to play through the first, and arguably best, Gears of War adventure ahead of the release of the new entry in the series, is a great chance to generate some hype. An official announcement will presumably follow at E3. We will keep you updated.

It has been announced by Rod Fergusson, the Studio Manager at Black Tusk Studios, that there is no remaster collection in the works for the original Gears of War trilogy, contrary to what was reported earlier. The series is highly admired and enjoyed by Xbox gamers to this very day.

This collected remaster, which is commonly refereed to by enthusiasts as the Marcus Fenix Collection, was officially proven to not exist by Rod by way of his personal Twitter feed where he said, “I love the passion, but there’s no Marcus Fenix Collection. We ARE working on other exciting Gears projects. I’ll see you at E3!”

Fergusson is instead focusing on the next Gears of War which is currently being developed by Black Tusk for the Xbox One. Though we know very little about the game at this time, we do know that Microsoft has said that there will be “a lot of surprises” at E3 this year, hinting at a Gears of War appearance.

Black Tusk Studios- the new handlers of the Gears of War franchise since Microsoft bought the rights to the IP from Epic Games- have announced that they will be holding podcasts with one of the game’s developer, the studio manager, in May and will be talking to him about the next Gears of War game that will be releasing some time in the future for the Xbox One.

In the podcasts, called “Rodcasts”, Black Tusk Studios will be asking the developer questions asked by fans- you and us. You can post any and all questions you want answered over at the forums for Gears of War. You have until May 8, 10 P.M. PDT to post your questions. The podcast will be held on May 15th, 5 P.M. PDT.

We don’t know much about Gears of War’s newest game yet, and we doubt it will be releasing anytime soon. There’s no official announcements on that yet.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on the Xbox One’s first Gears of War entry.

Black Tusk Studios have posted a bunch of job ads looking for people to add to their development team while they look to gear up for the development of a new Gears of War game for the Xbox One. Some of the job listings are interesting, as they give us a look at what ideas the developers might have for the game and its development.

A job ad looking for a Senior Rendering Engineer, says that the game will feature “bleeding edge new rendering techniques to deliver best in class visuals” and “major new features.” The rendering engineer would be responsible for optimizing and for the development of “industry leading high performance real time graphics features and effects”. The person is required to have “strong debugging and optimization skills in a multi-threaded environment”, suggesting that the game might run of DirectX 12.

Another advertisement looking for an Art Director  is looking for a candidate who will be “working with a broad spectrum of styles, from photo-realistic to highly stylized.” That’s interesting, since it looks like Black Tusk is looking at a new sort of visual style for the next Gears title.

There’s going to be more news on Gears in the near future, we’re guessing, so stay tuned and we will keep you updated.

Microsoft surprised more than just a few of us when they announced that they had officially purchased the Gears of War IP and that it was now their to do with as they pleased. What’s more, they also announced that they’d be giving the franchise over to Black Tusks Studios. While no new project in the Gears mythos was announced, it’s basically a known fact that somewhere down the line, maybe a few years, there will be a new Gears game.

But in the absence of the talent that Epic boasted and still boasts of, what will Gears 4- or whatever the next Gears game will be called- need to do to even get close to the quality that the trilogy boasted of?

Well, according to Epic Games’ senior designer Jim Brown, the new Gears title will have to be “really big” and would have to be a “special” game.

“Every game you release, there’s an arms race,” Brown said. “The next one has to be bigger, has to have more, has to be special and has to have something the last one didn’t have.

“You have to prove that you are evolving and moving on. There’s pressure there.”

Do you guys think the Gears series can thrive without Epic’s guidance? Tell us in your comments.

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Because quite frankly, there isn’t much info to be had. The game seemed to be a stealth-espionage title and Spencer reminded us that the gameplay we were seeing was in-engine. However, it was brief without any real indication of what the game was about. Or when it would be released.

But it was exclusive and that counts. Right?

As of now, we’ll have to wait for more details on Black Tusk but Microsoft came away from the conference in far better shape than before. Considering the initial Xbox Reveal saw their complete and utter annihilation, it’s safe to say they delivered extremely well on the first day of E3 2013.