Gears of War’s chief designer Cliff Bleszinski has reacted to Microsoft’s recent decision to bring a very small selection of its games to PlayStation and Nintendo, saying he would like to see Gears of War come to PlayStation. In fact, Gears of War was one of the franchises rumored for release on rival systems, but it wasn’t among the first batch of games slated for release. Bleszinski no longer works on the Gears of War series, however, having left Epic Games in 2012.
Speaking to GameRant, Bleszinski quoted Ronald Reagan regarding his thoughts on Microsoft’s push to bring more of its franchises to rival systems.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” he said. “I think that’s what Phil Spencer’s going for. He’s going for the Netflix model. That started with Xbox Game Pass and then, like Netflix, they realized they need to be on every device. People have been joking about Gears of War coming to PlayStation for well over like a decade and, you know, I think ‘the more, the merrier.’ If people own a PS5 and get to play and experience the next-gen Gears games, that means more Gears of War tattoos.”
In February, Microsoft announced plans to bring four games–Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Grounded–to competing consoles from PlayStation and Nintendo. Microsoft said it had “specific reasons” for doing this, and that includes helping to grow the Xbox business. Looking forward, Phil Spencer has said any Xbox game could come to PS5, but not every one will.
Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games 10 years ago in January 2014 for an undisclosed sum. The series has always been exclusive to Xbox on console, dating back to the first game in 2006. Since then, Microsoft has release Gears of War 4 and Gears 5. A turn-based spin-off, Gears Tactics, was released in 2020.
Looking ahead, The Coalition is reportedly now working on Gears 6. Outside of games, Microsoft and Netflix partnered for a Gears of War film and an animated series. Jon Spaihts, known for Dune, Doctor Strange, and Prometheus, is writing the script.
