Epic says selling Gears of War to Microsoft doesn’t mean it’s done making games

Microsoft owns Gears of War, but Epic Games says it is still making games.

This morning, the Xbox corporation announced that it acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic. This means that Microsoft will continue to make games in the sci-fi shooter franchise for its Xbox One console with a new developer, but it also means that Epic — who has overseen the triple-A franchise for four games and eight years — is no longer involved.

Epic has a major business making a suite of development tools called Unreal Engine. The company licenses the software to other developers who then use it to make their projects. Today’s news has led some to speculate that Epic, in the interest of focusing on Unreal Engine, is leaving game development behind.

The studio claims that isn’t the case.

“And for the people saying Epic isn’t making games anymore, we currently have multiple games in development including Fortnite,” Epic public relations manager Wes Phillips wrote on Twitter.

Fortnite is an upcoming cooperative shooter that has players building their own bunkers while fighting off waves of evil creatures. The game is due out for the PC, but it has no official release date.

http://youtu.be/n1_qZdCtA3o

Epic Games most recently released Gears of War: Judgment for Xbox 360 last year  — although Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly did the actual work on that title. Epic also released Infinity Blade III for iOS from its wholly owned subsidiary Chair Entertainment.