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[chadskin]

I believe this deserves its own thread outside of the Gears craze:

Gears of War's new home, Black Tusk Studios, may come as a surprise to Xbox fans who watched Microsoft's press conference from E3 2013. It was there where Spencer teased a new project from Black Tusk, a sleek, stealthy action game with no name.

"The thing we showed at E3 last year, it was something that was done in Unreal and more of a concept piece," Spencer said, calling it "an asset" created by the team to get their creative juices flowing, not necessarily an in-development game.

"The studio has really been incubating different ideas over the past six to nine months on what they might work on," he said, "but the discussion with Epic obviously didn't start yesterday. We've been in this discussion for a while. The leadership team there has known for a while."

Thanks to Opus Angelorum and Loudninja for pointing it out, via Polygon

Disappointed.

UPD: Black Tusk was working on a new IP originally:

Not only was the game at E3 presented as a game, the studio was clearly working on an original IP:

Microsoft opens new video game studio in Vancouver:

Studio staff have an average of 12 years experience in triple-A games, the industry’s equivalent of Hollywood summer blockbuster movies — “big games, big teams, big budgets, long timelines,” said Crump.

“What that means is we are working on Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise,” he said. “We’re not working on an existing franchise, we’re looking to build the next Halo here in Vancouver, for example, which is really exciting. We are building something from the ground up.”

“We have been officially green-lit by Microsoft executives to go ahead with the project that we’re on,” he said.

Spencer is caught in a pretty obvious damage control statement.

UPD2: Phil Spencer responds

XboxP3: @TheRealDoffen @Jahlvardravito You can imagine with something as big as Gears there is a lot for them to get their head around.

Steverulez: @xboxp3 So does that mean the new IP you showed a teaser of at E3 is still being made, or not?

XboxP3: @Steverulez Need to focus on Gears for now.

I still have no idea if its alive or not. Probably gone at this point

Twitter

UPD3: The mighty CBOAT weighs in:

btusk inst not that B!g. teh spygam WAS REAAL.
preriod.
n itwa$ good.

Translation: Black Tusk is not that big. The spygame was real. Period. And it was good.

UPD4: Mod-verified new kid on the leaker block ntkrnl shares the codename:

It looks like it - I'd probably wager that cboat has better insight for this particular thing.

Anyway, cool codename was Shangheist, which seriously sounds fucking awesome.

Stealing shit from the Chinese.

 

[Dabanton]

Very naughty Phil.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Oh, so then there's no indication that they're working on anything other than Gears of War?

 

[statham]

but cboat said the animation and sound was amazing.

 

[link1201]

Here is a thought: Development it.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

I pointed it out first, but I'll let it go this time

 

[beast786]

Lol , announcing games that don't even exist .

 

[alr1ght]

It turned into a concept piece after the Gears IP acquisition.

 

[PhoenixDawn]

Bleh, I guess now that they bought out the Gears franchise whatever Black Tusk was working on got thrown out the window so they can switch to making a game in the Gears series. I hope they get the opportunity to return to the project sometime though, it looked intriguing at least from what little we saw.

 

[Loudninja]

I pointed it out first, but I'll let it go this time

Oh no it was Opus that posted it I got it from him sorry bro!

 

[Riky]

Did it even have a name?

 

[rob305]

Didn't CBOAT say he saw the black tusk game and that he was blown away by it..?

EDIT:
Found the quote

OH bthe wayGOD NEWS FOr xboNE::! black tusks is til runrina late inprepro but loks fkuin great. skil;led devs on anim&& audio esp.

 

[RulkezX]

Was excited about MS developing new IP in house, but I shouldn't be surprised that it was more smoke and mirrors from them.

 

[V_Ben]

Didn't CBOAT say he saw the black tusk game and that he was blown away by it..?

Possible they made a vertical slice?

Edit: if true, this saddens me.

 

[DieH@rd]

LOL, what a stellar marketing campaign you have MS...

 

[Ol No Bones]

I thought it looked interesting. Was really hoping for a new ip and assumed. I really enjoy gears but we are ready for something fresh.

 

[Jonboy]

What in the world?!

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Oh no it was Opus that posted it I got it from him sorry bro!

Cheers bud, no biggie.

 

[Boke1879]

Lol. It's clear Black Tusk were making a new game, but once talks started about acquiring the new Gears MS told them to start over.

I was expecting a new IP. This news doesn't excite me.

 

[Milennia]

I have been saying this since they started talking about it.
It was a proof of concept for a game they were probably planning on making sometime in their early life as a studio but then the interviews just stopped. I wonder how long black tusk has been on gears, or at least planning.

 

[ElTorro]

Eh, that sucks. I was really looking forward to a great stealth game. :-/

 

[Triggerhappytel]

This is clearly bullshit, and it was absolutely not presented as a 'concept piece' at the time. My guess is that it was a game that was genuinely in development, but it was scrapped once MS realised they could get hold of Gears.

 

[Doffen]

Noooooooo!! Damn you!

 

[benny_a]

How very very disappointing.

 

[Ol No Bones]

Could they have 2 games in development? How big is the studio?

 

[Deadly Joker]

This is clearly bullshit, and it was absolutely not presented as a 'concept piece' at the time. My guess is that it was a game that was genuinely in development, but it was scrapped once MS realised they could get hold of Gears.

Bingo.

Very disappointed that we have one less new IP.

Same Old Shit.

 

[GlamFM]

I actually think this is a lie.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

Horrible news considering it was the most exciting thing shown at Microsoft's conference.

 

[TheBioLover]

Boooooooo.

 

[Anth1888]

This is clearly bullshit, and it was absolutely not presented as a 'concept piece' at the time. My guess is that it was a game that was genuinely in development, but it was scrapped once MS realised they could get hold of Gears.

Agreed. Think Spencer is saying that to save face and the game was axed.

 

[dugdug]

So, they put together a brand new studio just to work on an old IP that's on a downward trajectory?

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

 

[chadskin]

I pointed it out first, but I'll let it go this time

I sneakily added you in.

 

[TheOddOne]

Weird he said this to gameindustry:

Spencer also noted that a Black Tusk teaser trailer shown at E3 was built using Unreal. And even though that clip--a man rappelling down the side of a present-day skyscraper before swinging in an open window to clobber a gun-toting guard--looked decidedly unlike Gears of War, Spencer called it a concept piece, and not a project that is being shelved as a result of the IP acquisition.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Jesus. I'm not sure Microsoft is aware how bored the market got of hearing "HALO/GEARS OF WAR/FABLE/FORZA".

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Truly Sony 2006.

 

[beast786]

So any first party developed new IP for XB1?

 

[PhoenixFyre]

So best case scenario, he's telling the truth and MS pulled another Milo. Worst case scenario, he's full of it and we just lost a promising new IP to another god damned Gears game.

Either way you slice it, this kind of blows. A lot.

 

[ekim]

I actually think this is a lie.

The job openings for Black Tusk always mentioned "next big IP"

 

[Ol No Bones]

They said that black tusk was bringing the next big haloesqe franchise and turns out its the next gears. As a big fan of gears I'm horribly disappointed.

 

[RulkezX]

Weird he said this to gameindustry:

What's weird about it, it ties in with the OP. Spencer is claiming that the trailer was never meant to represent a game that was in active development.

 

[Nightengale]

I was really looking forward to seeing another spy-action franchise.

 

[Tamanon]

Weird he said this to gameindustry:

That's the same thing, he's not saying it's a project that was shelved, he's saying it was never a project to begin with, just concept.

 

[KorrZ]

Wow, that's a new one...can't remember ever seeing this tactic before. Make up fake games and show them off as exclusives? Brilliant MS.

 

[Dusky]

Well damn, I was looking forward to see what that new IP was. Oh well.

Hopefully they take Gears in a new direction.

 

[Fallout-with-swords]

This is really disappointing. Weren't they hyping it to be their next big Halo type franchise for MS and now they are just making more Gears. I couldn't be less interested in getting a Xbox One at this point.

 

[Guymelef]

This is clearly bullshit, and it was absolutely not presented as a 'concept piece' at the time. My guess is that it was a game that was genuinely in development, but it was scrapped once MS realised they could get hold of Gears.

.

 

[Carl]

Wow that's disappointing.

 

[Loudninja]

Does does raise a lot of new questions though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2t7V7NrCFA

The way he talk its like the game was already being worked on.

 

[TheOddOne]

What's weird about it, it ties in with the OP. Spencer is claiming that the trailer was never meant to represent a game that was in active development.

That's the same thing, he's not saying it's a project that was shelved, he's saying it was never a project to begin with, just concept.

Ah, ok.

 

[Omikaru]

I was actually looking forward to getting a new stealth IP. Recent releases in the genre have been letting me down lately, and I was hoping MS would try and gain some street cred by making a good one.

Hope it wasn't cancelled (or just simply not even greenlit in the first place) to make more Gears, but with remarks like Spencer's I suspect it was.