Epic Games developed the first three games in the hit Xbox and PC third-person sci-fi shooter series Gears of War. However, the games lead designer Cliff Bleszinski recently said that Epic was thinking about a major change in perspective for the fourth game in the series.
Speaking on the XboxEra podcast, (Via VGC) Bleszinski stated:
Yeah, I can tell you I wanted to actually consider going to first-person with it. Can you imagine chainsawing a Locust in first-person?
However, Epic Games decided instead to sell the Gears of War franchise to Microsoft in 2014. The company launched a new development studio, The Coalition, to release new games in the series. Gears 4 was launched in 2016, followed by Gears 5 in 2019. The Coalition is reportedly working on Gears 6 for an unknown release date.
In the same podcast interview, Bleszinski said that when Microsoft bought the franchise, he said that Xbox head Phil Spencer wanted to take the Gears of War series back to its original sci-fi horror themes. Bleszinski left Epic Games in 2012, and later left the gaming industry entirely after the failure of his developer studio Boss Key Productions.
Source: XboxEra podcast via VGC