After an excellent trilogy of games and a recent prequel title, Epic Games has sold their Gears of War franchise to Microsoft. The deal includes the intellectual property, all existing games and assets, and also the rights to make future games in the series.

It’s also been announced that the next game in the franchise, which no title or information exists for, will be developed by Microsoft’s Black Tusk Studios, and led by Rod Fergusson, who was a producer on the first three games.