Gears of War Franchise Exceeds 19 Million Copies Sold

Epic Games' Gears of War franchise has now topped over 19 million copies sold to date. This news was revealed by Microsoft today.

Microsoft is, of course, the publisher of Epic's Xbox 360-exclusive third-person cover-based shooter, and arguably, the most-popular franchise the Xbox 360 has aside from a certain Spartan.

While Microsoft wouldn't disclose official numbers for Gears of War 3, it's been revealed before by former franchise director Cliff Bleszinski that Gears of War 1 and 2's combined sales were over 12 million units. So it's a good guess that Gears of War 3 is around the 6-7 million-sold range; which puts it roughly around Epic's target.

Speaking of Bleszinski, it's old news now that he has departed Epic Games, but this means that Gears of War Judgment, the one being developed by Bulletstorm devs People Can Fly, will be the first Gears of War game that won't have Bleszinski's guidance. For some, this might be a cause for concern.

Do you think Gears of War Judgment will be up to the franchise's standard even without CliffyB working on it? Or is the franchise in need of an overhaul?

Gears of War Judgment will hit stores on March 19, 2013 exclusively for the Xbox 360.

Source: Joystiq