Cliff Bleszinski will not be working on the new Gears of War

Cliff Bleszinski has voiced his opinion about this morning's news that Microsoft has acquired the Gears of War franchise, and took to his blog to confirm he's not working on the next instalment with Black Tusk.

"My former employer has sold the Gears of War IP/franchise to Microsoft and my friend Rod Fergusson is going to be working on it. To be honest, I don’t think the franchise could be in better hands. Heck, Rod’s Twitter handle, to this day, is "Gears Viking." Gears is just as much Rod’s baby as it was mine. He’ll take good care of her," he said.

Adding, "I’m not going to move to Vancouver and work on it. I’m not going to consult on it. My headspace is in the future now, not the past."

Bleszinski also joked about the old question of whether Gears will ever come to the PlayStation platform, saying, "I suppose this puts the nail in the coffin of the question "Will Gears ever come to Playstation?"

This follows the news that Microsoft has acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games this morning and subsequently appointing Rod Fergusson as a lead on the upcoming game, which will be developed by Black Tusk Studios.

Bleszinski, who has been teasing his next project for a while now, recently expressed his desire to work on an arena shooter for PC.

Thanks, Polygon.