Cliff Bleszinksi says Microsoft would be ‘smart’ to let him consult on Gears of War

Microsoft is said to have been considering the idea to bring other major franchises to rival platforms, including the Gears of War, the next Doom, and Flight Simulator.

Microsoft shared new details about its plans for Xbox hardware, teasing the next generation of Xbox consoles and providing updates about its gaming business in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast Thursday. While the company confirmed that four Xbox-exclusive games would launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, it reiterated its commitment to developing Xbox hardware and exclusives titles on the platform. In the podcast, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that Microsoft was focussed on delivering the “largest technical leap” for a new console generation for the next Xbox.

So, to say that the Xbox event that dropped today was “eventful” might be a bit of an overstatement for various reasons. One of those reasons is that nothing significant was truly revealed on the gaming side, and despite all sorts of “the sky is falling” statements about Microsoft going third-party, it didn’t happen. All Microsoft stated was that they wanted to “test the waters” by having certain titles go multi-platform despite being exclusive in the past, which is something numerous titles have done across several publishers. However, lost within that indecisiveness was a small glimmer of information that highlights the future of the company’s console brand.

In case you missed it, Microsoft made an industry-shaking acquisition at the tail end of last year, buying up Activision Blizzard King for an eye-watering $69 billion. It took a long time to close, though, because of intense scrutiny from a handful of different sources — one of those being the USA's Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Now, in the wake of Microsoft cutting thousands of jobs, the FTC is back on the company's case, accusing it of contradicting statements made in court about how the business would operate post-acquisition.

Former Mass Effect and Dragon Age director and BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn says he "wouldn't go back" to the RPG studio.

A couple of weeks ago, Hideo Kojima announced that he was returning to the action espionage genre with a new game, codenamed Physint.

Kojima Productions released a brand-new HideoTube episode, wherein the eponymous developer explains that his relationship with Guillermo del Toro «saved» his life. The Kojima-helmed studio is working on a minimum of three projects currently: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, O.D., and a new espionage game codenamed Physint. Kojima touches on these three new Kojima Productions projects, in addition to his creative process and personal life, in the HideoTube episode.

Final Fantasy 16 actor Ben Starr has said he’d like to reprise his role as Clive Rosfield.

Though two Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Tera raid battles are already scheduled throughout the middle of February, trainers will soon have more to do, as Stonjourner, Eiscue, Armarouge, and Ceruledge join the lineup. These upcoming Tera raid battles in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will make these version-exclusive critters available to players regardless of the game played.

Gears of War's creator has commented on the success of Palworld, revealing that he once pitched his own Pokemon-like at Epic Games "many years ago." 

Cliff Bleszinski, one of the creators of Gears of War, took to Twitter to express confusion as to why Microsoft hadn't asked him to consult on the series. 

Cliff «CliffyB» Bleszinski says he's «down» to consult on the next Gears game, saying «if they were smart», Microsoft and Coalition would invite him to «give his two cents».