We still don’t know what’s next for Gears of War, but we do know what’s happening with the studio behind it — a name change.
Black Tusk Studios, the Vancouver-based team working on the Xbox Gears of War games, officially changes its name to The Coalition today. Microsoft acquired the popular shooter franchise from Epic Games last year, and it tasked the studio with continuing development of the franchise. This move is just ahead of E3 2015, where an announcement on the future franchise is expected at Microsoft’s annual Xbox press conference.
Studio head Rod Fergusson says that the name speaks to who the studio is as a team and what it is working on. Fans might recognize the reference — the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) comes for Gears of War lore.
“When people hear 343 Industries, they associate it with Halo; when they hear Turn 10 Studios, they know that’s who makes Forza,” Fergusson said in a blog post. “Moving forward, when you hear The Coalition, we want you to think of Gears of War.”
Fergusson notes that series fans should tune into Microsoft’s Xbox Daily E3 livestream at 4 p.m. Pacific on Monday, June 15, to see what The Coalition is working on.