Black Tusk Studios, the developer behind Microsoft"s upcoming Gears of War game, will now seemingly focus more exclusively on the shooter series, as its been rebranded as "The Coalition" based on the franchise"s mythology.
In an announcement posted to Microsoft"s official Xbox Wire website, studio head Rod Fergusson says the Vancouver studio is now named The Coalition because it "speaks to who we are as a team, and what it is we"re working on." He further clarifies that it"s based on the lore of the franchise, as the Coalition of Ordered Governments is the human faction in the Gears of War games.
The rebranding is similar to Microsoft"s name for its 343 Industries game studio, which focuses exclusively on Halo games and harkens to the lore of that franchise, as 343 Guilty Spark is a character who defends the Halo installation. Similarly, Turn 10 Studios is known as the studio behind the numbered entries in the Forza series (Playground Games makes the Horizon spinoff franchise).
Black Tusk Studios was founded as a studio to work on Xbox exclusive games, and at E3 2013, the developer showed a teaser for what appeared to be an in-development stealth game. In January 2014, however, Microsoft purchased the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games and hired Fergusson to lead Black Tusk in the development of a new entry in the franchise.
The Coalition plans to reveal the next entry in the Gears of War franchise during Microsoft"s E3 press conference at 4 p.m. Pacific Time Monday, June 15. While no official announcement has been made, a bevy of leaks have shown images and videos of a remake of the original "Gears of War," which will almost certainly be revealed at E3.
Source: Xbox Wire