The Coalition Abandoned ‘Hugely Invested’ Project for Gears of War

The Coalition, formerly known as Black Tusk Studio, was given a choice when it came to whether or not it would continue its work on a new IP or take on the Gears of War franchise after Microsoft acquired the rights, according to The Coalition studio manager Mike Crump in an interview with Polygon.

Prior to Microsoft acquiring the rights to the Gears of War franchise, a series that had appeared exclusively on Xbox 360, save for a port of the first game to PC, what was then known as Black Tusk Studio had been working on a new IP that was only shown in a short teaser video at E3 2013.

"Microsoft was in discussions with Epic," Crump said to Polygon. "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."

Not all who had been working on the new IP were happy to learn that they would be tabling all of their hard work indefinitely to work on Gears of War.

"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," Crump said. "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."

After much debate, a decision was made. "We went around the table and everybody was in favor of going for Gears of War,” Crump said.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, a remastered version of the original Gears of War, will be released on Xbox One Aug. 25, 2015 and later on PC.