Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition was given the option to either continue working on its original IP under the Black Tusk Studios banner, or become the Gears studio and make the fourth mainline entry in the popular third-person shooter series.
That's right, the team wasn't forced to abandon its new IP, which was originally positioned to be the next big Xbox franchise like Halo has been for the original Xbox and Xbox 360. That said, it wasn't an easy decision for the folks at The Coalition, as a lot of blood, sweat, tears had already been invested in its new IP. "We were hugely invested in what we were working on," studio manager Mike Crump told Polygon. "You don't spend a year and a half working on a game without getting attached to it. There was a lot of discussion."
In fact, the decision to switch gears (see what I did there?) and work on a Gears of War was a difficult pill for many of the studio members to swallow. "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," he continued.
"If you've been in the game industry long enough, you're going to go through project cancelations. 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."
In the end, however, the team was able to come to a consensus: "We went around the table and everybody was in favor of going for Gears of War," Crump concluded.
Are you glad to see The Coalition moving forward with a new Gears game or do you wish the team stuck with its original IP?
