Could Epic break up with MS? And what would that mean for Gears of War 2?

As everyone knows, Epic has butted heads with Microsoft on several occasions over the last few years. First, it was because Epic wanted the Gears of War maps to be free. Then later, MS got into a hissy fit over user mods in Unreal Tournament 3, something that Epic is very enthusiastic about pushing, and MS cannot stand since in their minds it threatens microtransactions. Also, Epic made a sweet deal with Sony where they would optimize the Unreal 3 engine for PS3, release Unreal Tournament 3 as a timed exclusive, and make a new exclusive IP for PS3, supposedly on the same level of awesome as Gears of War. And ontop of that, Epic is being sued by one of Microsoft's other second parties, Silicon Knights. MS is in a position where they could play peacemaker between Epic and Silicon Knights, but they are currently doing nothing. I'm sure Epic isn't none too happy about that.

Obviously, Epic is not particularly loyal to Microsoft, even though they did publish Gears of War. Epic is independent, and they can basically have anyone publish their games that they want. So that leads me to wonder-- conflicts of vision with MS, recent favors for Sony and multiplatform support across all three powerhouse consoles (360, PS3, and PC)... Is it possible that Epic's partnership with MS might end in the near future? And what could this mean for Gears of War 2? Despite what some people have said, it's Epic who owns the Gears of War franchise, not Microsoft. Microsoft published Gears of War 1, so they technically own that title, but not the IP itself. In theory, if Epic left MS, it wouldn't necessarily put Gears 2 in danger, because Epic could take it with them and have say, Midway publish it instead. But, that would also mean that Gears 2 could very likely go multiplatform.

Agh, there goes my diahrreah of the keyboard. I am probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I do find it odd that Epic has gotten cozy with Sony after their disputes with Microsoft, and that we've heard no news at all about Gears of War 2, even though Gears of War is freaking huge. In any case, I'm keeping my eyes on 2008 to see what goes down.

Agh, there goes my diahrreah of the keyboard. I am probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I do find it odd that Epic has gotten cozy with Sony after their disputes with Microsoft, and that we've heard no news at all about Gears of War 2, even though Gears of War is freaking huge. In any case, I'm keeping my eyes on 2008 to see what goes down.

Timstuff

It isn't a mountain out of a molehill, more like anthill. Microsoft owns part of Gears of War, so it not going anywhere.

[QUOTE="Timstuff"]MS does not own the Gears of War IP any more than Nintendo owns the Perfect Dark IP.Did you people just graze over that part of my post?jiggawho2006

al i heard was, "MoO, i have $600 paper weight with no games to play"

And all I read was "This guy's not a lemming so he obviously has nothing smart to say! *RRODs*".

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"]I believe MS owns the rights to the first two entries in the Gears of War series. Perhaps the 3rd could go multiplatform?Prtofdacrowd

I also believe that MS has a large amount of Shares and therefore a controlling interest!

All lies. MS does not own a red cent of Epic, last I checked.

That's actually a good post people.

Nice points there. Although, I do think that MS owns the rights to Gears until the 3rd installment.

[QUOTE="jiggawho2006"]

[QUOTE="Timstuff"]MS does not own the Gears of War IP any more than Nintendo owns the Perfect Dark IP.Did you people just graze over that part of my post?Timstuff

al i heard was, "MoO, i have $600 paper weight with no games to play"

And all I read was "This guy's not a lemming so he obviously has nothing smart to say! *RRODs*".

... Pssst.... You may want to remove the double negative from your post...

I believe MS owns the rights to the first two entries in the Gears of War series. Perhaps the 3rd could go multiplatform?mattbbpl

The first one is already under development for the PC. :P

MS does not own the Gears of War IP any more than Nintendo owns the Perfect Dark IP.Did you people just graze over that part of my post?Timstuff

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"]I believe MS owns the rights to the first two entries in the Gears of War series. Perhaps the 3rd could go multiplatform?Technoweirdo

The first one is already under development for the PC. :P

Ha! Got me there! Perhaps the 3rd could go to the PS3.

TC has a point. And this could very well be the case, if we were talking about "average humans". But in the world of business, Money speaks louder than actions. And no matter how much epic dislikes whoever, if Microsoft throws money at someone, chances are Microsoft will get what they payed for. (however, often times, that is *ALL* they get).

And you freaky fanboys straight-up bashing the TC are just being way too offencive. Could it be you are actually worried about this too? who are you trying to convince? the TC, or yourselves?

The fact is, we don't know WHAT will happen, as MS DOES NOT own the Gears of War IP. Look at what the guys who made FEAR did. they took their franchise, renamed it, and are coming out with a sequel of a different name.

You just don't know what will happen. And I think the TC has a plausible possibility. Indeed, 2008 will be interesting for games, and gamers alike. :)
0rin

Cows are so cute when they are jealous. The first post is nothing but wishful thinking.dracula_16

i'm sure MS and epic has signed some sort of contract to at least keep gears exclusive to the 360, i know MS and Epic are having some trouble together but i don't think MS will let there biggest shooter next to halo slip thru their fingers because of some DL content, 2nd party problems, etc.

as far as the suit and MS just sitting back, i think they should def step in and try to make peace between the two companies, this suit could risk the future of epic games developing for the 360, which would be a serious hit to MS

Cows are so cute when they are jealous. The first post is nothing but wishful thinking.dracula_16

[QUOTE="0rin"]TC has a point. And this could very well be the case, if we were talking about "average humans". But in the world of business, Money speaks louder than actions. And no matter how much epic dislikes whoever, if Microsoft throws money at someone, chances are Microsoft will get what they payed for. (however, often times, that is *ALL* they get).

And you freaky fanboys straight-up bashing the TC are just being way too offencive. Could it be you are actually worried about this too? who are you trying to convince? the TC, or yourselves?

The fact is, we don't know WHAT will happen, as MS DOES NOT own the Gears of War IP. Look at what the guys who made FEAR did. they took their franchise, renamed it, and are coming out with a sequel of a different name.

You just don't know what will happen. And I think the TC has a plausible possibility. Indeed, 2008 will be interesting for games, and gamers alike. :)
nintendofreak_2

[QUOTE="Timstuff"]MS does not own the Gears of War IP any more than Nintendo owns the Perfect Dark IP.Did you people just graze over that part of my post?swaginator

Nintendo owns Donkey Kong because they created it LONG before Rare came under their wing. With Gears of War, it was created by Epic, and MS published it. MS does not own it. At best, they've got a contract with Epic to create a finite number of Gears-branded games exclusively. But if Epic really didn't want to make any more games for MS, they could just discontinue the franchise if they aren't allowed to make it go multiplatform. Granted, that is an extreme example, and in all likeliness Gears of War 2 is already in developement as a 360 exclusive. But Epic leaving MS and taking Gears of War with them is still a possibility that should not be brushed aside, given recent events.

Why, thank you! Flattery will get you everywhere. :P
0rin

Epic is not going to "break up" with Microsoft. Why would they end this kind of work relationship when Gears of War was such a huge success and made Epic a lot of money?

Microsoft and Epic are good business partners, and it was because of Epic that Microsoft put 512 megs of unified memory in the Xbox 360 when they wanted to put only 256. Epic said that they needed the 512 to make Gears look spectacular, and Microsoft reluctantly agreed to put it in the design specs even though it would cost them over a billion dollars to do so.

Gears of War 2 will come to Xbox 360 because of the huge success of the 1st one. Epic will want to do it because it will mean millions of more dollars in their coffers.

I'm sure they would put Gears of War 2 on the 360. It would make no sense to abandon that following considering how well Gears sold on the 360. In the end, Epic is about money like every other corporation. sonicare

I'm sure they would put Gears of War 2 on the 360. It would make no sense to abandon that following considering how well Gears sold on the 360. In the end, Epic is about money like every other corporation. sonicare

Going multiplatform with a Gears of War sequel would not be "abandoning the fanbase." If it were published by Midway, Epic's current third-party partner, then it would be multiplatform, so the original fans would still get to play it.

Also,0rin raised a very interesting point with the Fear sequel. That is a living example of what happened when a publisher and developer broke up. There are others, like Crytech with Far Cry and Crysis, and Harmonix with Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but Fear is the most deliberate, and it is the most applicable to this situation. If MS broke up with Epic but they still had paid for exclusive rights to the sequel to Gears, both Microsoft and Epic could end up making seperate, un-related Gears of War sequels. MS could make "Gears of War 2," but then Epic could make "Gears of War: Second Rising," or even change the name alltogether to something like "Locust Storm!" If things are really bad with MS and Epic, there's no telling where things could go.

As everyone knows, Epic has butted heads with Microsoft on several occasions over the last few years. First, it was because Epic wanted the Gears of War maps to be free. Then later, MS got into a hissy fit over user mods in Unreal Tournament 3, something that Epic is very enthusiastic about pushing, and MS cannot stand since in their minds it threatens microtransactions. Also, Epic made a sweet deal with Sony where they would optimize the Unreal 3 engine for PS3, release Unreal Tournament 3 as a timed exclusive, and make a new exclusive IP for PS3, supposedly on the same level of awesome as Gears of War. And ontop of that, Epic is being sued by one of Microsoft's other second parties, Silicon Knights. MS is in a position where they could play peacemaker between Epic and Silicon Knights, but they are currently doing nothing. I'm sure Epic isn't none too happy about that.

Obviously, Epic is not particularly loyal to Microsoft, even though they did publish Gears of War. Epic is independent, and they can basically have anyone publish their games that they want. So that leads me to wonder-- conflicts of vision with MS, recent favors for Sony and multiplatform support across all three powerhouse consoles (360, PS3, and PC)... Is it possible that Epic's partnership with MS might end in the near future? And what could this mean for Gears of War 2? Despite what some people have said, it's Epic who owns the Gears of War franchise, not Microsoft. Microsoft published Gears of War 1, so they technically own that title, but not the IP itself. In theory, if Epic left MS, it wouldn't necessarily put Gears 2 in danger, because Epic could take it with them and have say, Midway publish it instead. But, that would also mean that Gears 2 could very likely go multiplatform.

Agh, there goes my diahrreah of the keyboard. I am probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I do find it odd that Epic has gotten cozy with Sony after their disputes with Microsoft, and that we've heard no news at all about Gears of War 2, even though Gears of War is freaking huge. In any case, I'm keeping my eyes on 2008 to see what goes down.

Timstuff

One thing I noticed about you is that you actually have a solid opinion, but you come here to say it among all these blind supporters of Microsoft which are just a bunck of kids that live in their own world and have nothing else to say but to accuse you of being a cow ...etc. Other than that, it seems that your pointsare pretty realistic.

Microsoft would be severely owned if Epic turns to the Mac for their games in the future after UT3.DSgamer64

And they would be severely owning themselves in the process too.

[QUOTE="DSgamer64"]Microsoft would be severely owned if Epic turns to the Mac for their games in the future after UT3.thinicer

And they would be severely owning themselves in the process too.

Most true. Epic is not going to switch to Mac over a dispute with MS's games division. And ontop of that, they already make games for Mac-- a lot of people probably didn't expect to learn that Gears of War is coming out on Mac, and surely enough it's coming! Epic does not have to choose between one or the other, and pretty much any programmer would tell you they'd rather develope for the PC than Mac. And it's not like most Mac users are hardcore gamers, anyway.

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

Tactis

This is why you should read threads before posting in them.

dream on cow, you wish and you dream. it's something called contract and the fact that microsoft owns the name "gears of war"

so keep dreaming and be a good cow and "wait" i mean you've been waiting since 2005?

jiggawho2006

The irony!! Didnt you have to "wait "to get your 360s fixed when it crapped out on you?? I guess returning your 360s to get it fixed so many times you lost track..go ahead keep reviving it im sure it die again..lol..The one being owned is you when microsoft rushed their system out and now there is so many issues with hardware that they have to lose 1.5 billion dollars on repairs..lol...Also their adding new features into newer models of 360s that is even better then the tard pack you have right now..Dont they have you by the balls..lol.. .How much you have to pay again for a broken 360?? 600 dollars now?? Ill be playing games none stop while you lemmings will be praying your 360 will still work each day that past by..

[QUOTE="Tactis"]

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

Timstuff

This is why you should read threads before posting in them.

excuse me? you provided no link no proof and speculated on something we have no ground knowledge over(the contract between microsoft and epicis not in the public hands and specific details like who owns the IP and exactly how the agreement works is not known either)i can do the same thing and provide my own speculation if you dont like that then too bad i did read you post.

[QUOTE="Tactis"]

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

Timstuff

This is why you should read threads before posting in them.

Your word is God? Sorry, but MS have part ownership of the franchise, just because you say otherwise dosn't change anything.

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

Tactis

Gears of War is MADE by Epic, therefori it is THEIR GAME. Are you really that daft? There is only a contract to make 2 Gears of War games for the 360, after that Epic is free to do whatever in the hell they want with their own franchise, which means making it PS3 exclusive if they really wanted too.

[QUOTE="jiggawho2006"]

dream on cow, you wish and you dream. it's something called contract and the fact that microsoft owns the name "gears of war"

so keep dreaming and be a good cow and "wait" i mean you've been waiting since 2005?

ps3gen

The irony!! Didnt you have to "wait "to get your 360s fixed when it crapped out on you?? I guess returning your 360s to get it fixed so many times you lost track..go ahead keep reviving it im sure it die again..lol..The one being owned is you when microsoft rushed their system out and now there is so many issues with hardware that they have to lose 1.5 billion dollars on repairs..lol...Also their adding new features into newer models of 360s that is even better then the tard pack you have right now..Dont they have you by the balls..lol.. .How much you have to pay again for a broken 360?? 600 dollars now?? Ill be playing games none stop while you lemmings will be praying your 360 will still work each day that past by..

MOO MOO! Im a cow who believes the blown out of the water 100% defect rate of the 360.

[QUOTE="ps3gen"][QUOTE="jiggawho2006"]

dream on cow, you wish and you dream. it's something called contract and the fact that microsoft owns the name "gears of war"

so keep dreaming and be a good cow and "wait" i mean you've been waiting since 2005?

Marka1700

The irony!! Didnt you have to "wait "to get your 360s fixed when it crapped out on you?? I guess returning your 360s to get it fixed so many times you lost track..go ahead keep reviving it im sure it die again..lol..The one being owned is you when microsoft rushed their system out and now there is so many issues with hardware that they have to lose 1.5 billion dollars on repairs..lol...Also their adding new features into newer models of 360s that is even better then the tard pack you have right now..Dont they have you by the balls..lol.. .How much you have to pay again for a broken 360?? 600 dollars now?? Ill be playing games none stop while you lemmings will be praying your 360 will still work each day that past by..

MOO MOO! Im a cow who believes the blown out of the water 100% defect rate of the 360.

I think its more then 100% defective rate way, way higher!!!!.Just look at all the people's who have a dozen 360 crap out on them..sure it It works perfectly fine..lol...There will always be news on it because everyday its dying on someone...

[QUOTE="Tactis"]

My understanding is that Microsoft owns the franchise so unless epic wants to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars just for some stupid issues like mods and downloadble content, as to the silicon knights thinghow is that an issue to breach contract over? its freaking silicon knights fault MS doesn't tell them what engine to use.

DSgamer64

Gears of War is MADE by Epic, therefori it is THEIR GAME. Are you really that daft? There is only a contract to make 2 Gears of War games for the 360, after that Epic is free to do whatever in the hell they want with their own franchise, which means making it PS3 exclusive if they really wanted too.

and exactly how do you know this? i mean sure epic is a third party but publishing deals could always have ownership clause in them in a sense MS could own the franchise depending on the contract itself.

for example we all know Bioware made KOTOR however the original owners of the IP is Lucas Arts because they were able to take the franchise and give it to Obsidian to develop KOTOR 2, who is to say its not the same exact thing? anyway i have no proof of this and you have no proof of your point either so this kinda pointless.

why is everyone so surprised this could happen? just because epic is not owned by MS does not mean MS does not own the franchise just like Lucas Arts does with KOTOR.

[QUOTE="Marka1700"][QUOTE="ps3gen"][QUOTE="jiggawho2006"]

dream on cow, you wish and you dream. it's something called contract and the fact that microsoft owns the name "gears of war"

so keep dreaming and be a good cow and "wait" i mean you've been waiting since 2005?

ps3gen

The irony!! Didnt you have to "wait "to get your 360s fixed when it crapped out on you?? I guess returning your 360s to get it fixed so many times you lost track..go ahead keep reviving it im sure it die again..lol..The one being owned is you when microsoft rushed their system out and now there is so many issues with hardware that they have to lose 1.5 billion dollars on repairs..lol...Also their adding new features into newer models of 360s that is even better then the tard pack you have right now..Dont they have you by the balls..lol.. .How much you have to pay again for a broken 360?? 600 dollars now?? Ill be playing games none stop while you lemmings will be praying your 360 will still work each day that past by..

MOO MOO! Im a cow who believes the blown out of the water 100% defect rate of the 360.

I think its more then 100% defective rate way, way higher!!!!.Just look at all the people's who have a dozen 360 crap out on them..sure it It works perfectly fine..lol...There will always be news on it because everyday its dying on someone...