Baron Aloha
A Shining Example
GhaleonEB said:Epic retained the IP for Gears. Microsoft has first publishing option to sequels, IIRC.
This is correct. Under the terms of the agreement Microsoft gets first dibs to publish any Gears of War titles. If they chose not to publish (unlikely) then it could show up on PS3.
We don't know exactly how the deal is structured. It could be for a certain number of sequels or it could be for a certain number of years. I've heard that it was for the first sequel (which could essentially tie the series up for the entire gen depending on how far away GOW2 is) but that may not be true. Only the MS and Epic execs know for sure.
Its also possible that when it expires MS and Epic can renegotiate and extend it even further. MS would probably have to pony up some serious dough in order to make it worthwhile it for Epic not to publish the game on multiple platforms though. By 2008/2009 the PS3 will have a good install base. They may even have a stripped down version of UE3 running on Wii by then. It will be interesting to see what happens.