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The first Gears of War game from new series developer Black Tusk Studios must "reignite" the franchise and grow the series in a meaningful way, according to Microsoft Studios executive Phil Spencer.

"Still working through plan. I can say first original [Gears of War] from [Black Tusk] has to reignite franchise and grow it, won't be a quick turn," Spencer said on Twitter. He further explained that he thinks Microsoft has assembled the right team to achieve this goal.

"I just want to give them the time," Spencer said, suggesting that the game's release is still a ways off.

Microsoft purchased the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games last month for an undisclosed sum and revealed that former Epic Games producer Rod Fergusson had returned to Microsoft to work on the series. Official details on the new Gears of War game are expected sometime in 2014.

No new games in the series have been officially announced, but it would be surprising if Black Tusk's first title doesn't come to at least the Xbox One. Longtime Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski will not work on the game in any capacity.

Spencer previously teased that a future entry in the Gears of War series might be "more gritty" than past games in the series. He also explained that Gears of War: Judgment did not hit the level of quality of past games and this was reflected in review scores and sales, he argued. This is something he's hoping to turn around with the new Gears of War game.

"I don't want to call it a reboot because I think it's an overused term, but think about where that franchise goes and how to expand what it was," Spencer said.

The Gears of War franchise is one of the Xbox platform's leading series. It has spanned four titles so far: Gears of War (2006), Gears of War 2 (2008), Gears of War 3 (2011), and Gears of War: Judgment (2013). Together, the games have sold more than 22 million copies and generated over $1 billion. Gears of War Exile, rumored to be a Kinect-enabled spinoff, was canceled.