The overseer of Black Tusk Studios has made of some eye-opening comments about the lengths taken to create the next-gen entry of Gears of War.

In a recent interview with OXM UK, Rod Fergusson, studio manager of Black Tusk Studios, has acknowledged the hardships and expectations that come with inheriting the Gears of War franchise. More importantly, Fergusson commented on the steps taken in order to keep fans on their toes.

"It's the same thing with all sequels," Fergusson said. "This isn't a great way of phrasing it but I always talk about shipping a sequel to customers as 'managing betrayal.' They want something new, but they don't want something so new that it doesn't feel like what they want. But if you put out something that's very familiar and is the same as the game they just had, then it's like 'I've already had this. This isn't new enough.'"

Microsoft Studios inherited the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games this past January and tasked Black Tusk with continuing the series. Rod Fergusson was hired by Microsoft and was assigned to oversee Black Tusk's development of the Xbox One's first Gears of War title. Fergusson was the director of production and executive producer at Epic Games for the first three Gears of War titles.

"You actually have to betray them enough to give them something new and surprising but not so much that they disconnect, and I think that is a big thing that we have to focus on," Fergusson said. "It's how we can innovate and bring something new to the franchise while at the same time really proving that we understand Gears - that this is the franchise that you know and love."

Prior to its work on the Xbox One Gears of War title, Black Tusk Studios had developed Microsoft Flight and was developing a Kinect title. The next sequel has only just gone into development, so it'll be some time until we see more about the fifth Gears game, but hopefully the wait will be worth it.

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