Pachter: Microsoft Paid “$100M Or Less” For Gears Of War, Probably Xbox One Exclusive

Posted Jan 27 2014 by Dylan Zellmer with 38 Comments

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This morning Microsoft secured the rights to the Gears of War IP. A move that caught many off guard. Most folks are cautiously, or even openly, optimistic about the IP moving forward in the hands of Black Tusk Studios. Immediately after seeing the news about Microsoft’s purchase, I reached out to Michael Pachter for his estimate of what MS ultimately paid Epic Games to fork over the IP. His response,

Probably $100 million or less, certainly no more than that.  They clearly think they will get a return, or they wouldn’t have done it.

Part of this mornings announcement gave us a pretty impressive figure; Gears of War has grossed over $1B over its life span. That makes Pachter’s estimated $100M purchase look all the more attractive. With a group of veteran developers at Black Tusk and Rod Fergusson at the helm, it’s likely that Microsoft will see a decent return on investment after the first Black Tusk developed installment hits shelves.

Another bit that we discussed was what platform the game would ultimately target. Given that Black Tusk is newly formed, and the E3 footage shown last year was basically a tech demo, it’s almost assured that Black Tusk’s Gears of War will be Xbox One exclusive,

The studio was just formed, so they won’t have a game for three years.  Probably Xbox One exclusive

Greatness takes time, and I’m more than willing to give Fergusson and company all the time in the world to achieve what the original Gears of War did for the genre.

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Dylan Zellmer

EIC at iGame Responsibly
Dylan splits time between games journalism, designing video games, and playing them. Outside of his deep involvement in the games industry, he enjoys It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shameless, A Song of Ice and Fire, fitness, and family.
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  • kevin

    Got nothing but time

  • Nintendosonyfan

    Money well spent, as a ex ps4 owner and new xbox one owner, I can’t wait

    • You are flat out wrong

      Enjoy waiting.

    • Jack Slater

      You have never been an ex of something, and will never be.
      The few xbox one owners can prepare themselves for 90% of the games they will be able to buy, until 2017:
      Halo,forza,gears,cod with exclusive content,halo,forza,gears,cod,battlefield:
      Shooters, where they will be the tough american marine, that will save the galaxy from the bad Russians, Serbians or Ethiopians. With seasons passes and micro transactions for special ammo, scopes,etc, all over the place
      All this, at 720p.

      Damn, this reminds me something. Wasn’t there a console with those games, displayed at 720p as well? Can’t remember which one.. somebody help me out, please.

      • Shawn

        what a immature miserable piece of shit if you dont care about gears or the xbox why u in here get a life ! prime example of what is wrong with the internet and so called gamers these days… the wait will be fine when the game launches i guarantee it makes more money then all other firsty party games combined like gears of war 3 did … greatness awaits

        • Shawn

          ..

        • Jack Slater

          How dare you talking like that, you little son of a dirty biitch and 9″ cocck sucker father?
          If you are used to talk like that to your dog and sister, you missed ugly abortion, just do it.
          But if you are too young to read a comment on internet without acting like you just saw your mother doing a 40 guys gangbaang, and starting calling people miserable, well, no-friends-nobody-loves-you vomit-faced with half the teeth missing, with a 1.5 inches penis that even a rat wouldn’t feel, well, you stinky 300 pound of 12 yo shiit, just return to school, stop playing cod all day, and go a bit outside. You might find some starving dogs, that will follow you into your cave, and maybe you will be able to say ‘ I’m not a virgin anymore.I’m a true man.but damn, that dog had a big one’.

          Now, disconnect from internet, and grow up. And come back in 10 years, kid.

          • Yana

            Both of you are stupid. I love Gears. I am loyal to Xbox and Xbox only. I can wait for the game to come out because I KNOW it will be an awesome effing game, just like the other ones. Judgement was okay…it wasn’t as big as 3 but the series is awesome and the online experience is awesome, I love playing Horde. I just effing love the game.

            If you don’t like the game or don’t want to wait for it, take your butt back PS and play something over there. ♥Xbox

          • Iain Chambers

            Plz don’t be loyal to a company just enjoy good games there are good games on all platforms. Just remember Microsoft and Sony only make games to make money from you

          • J L

            Dude….you need to get laid or something…

        • Am

          Do you know that uncharted 2 and 3 sold more than Gears of War 3 and of the 3 Gears of War, 3 is the game that sell less.

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  • Iain Chambers

    The first one was shit And never bothered with the rest as they never bothered putting them on pc probably to the very poor reception. Epic havent made a great game in over 10 years so I wish the new team luck

    • William Downie

      First one shit??? You have no taste Gears 1 campaign was way ahead of its time and one of the best game and franchises of all time plus unrivalled MP millions upon millions disagree with you pal me included,you obviously never bothered to even try and get into the game and you probably suck ass with gnasher online

      • Iain Chambers

        I got through the first one and ahead of its time isn’t something I would say about it. And to be fair it feels like its more loved on consoles but on PC it was just second rate lacked any really spark of greatness

        • William Downie

          Wow ok so it never shaped 3rd person shooter mechanics to this day,TLOU being a great example of a game that in its MP copied everything from Gears,4 player co op campaign at that time was unique and unheard of,the gripping story excellent graphics and characters which have millions of fans,all games apart from Judgement sold in excess of 6 million,the franchise itself is worth over 1 billion $ in sales with games,books and memorabilia,and even today Gears MP is unmatched and has millions upon millions of hardcore fans and install base,I respect your opinion,and mine is you have no real idea what Gears is or means to many,and I’m betting you sucked ass with gnasher online

          • Iain Chambers

            Come on characters they are almost characterchures of most 80’s moves Not the best start. excellent graphics ok you can have that one. Gripping story B-movie at best bit higher then resident evil’s but not enjoyable as it wants you to take it seriously. MP have to admit never even bothered much (Same with Uncharted good SP shit MP) I play most games for SP apart from some MP games Battlefield/l4d/mechwarrior/Dayz/Arma and so on.

            Now for all the books and memorabilia not really much to do with how good or bad the game is I collect Final Fantasy memorabilia but I’m not saying all Final Fantasy games are great

    • Yana

      Clearly bad taste in games because Gears 1 was awesome. You can’t call a game “shit” just because you had difficulties beating it. Sounds like an avid PS fan that just has misplaced disdain for Xbox. Jealous?
      BS… i mean.. PS

      • Iain Chambers

        PC gammer m8 but I do have a WiiU and PS3 the Girlfriend has the 360 she likes the fitness and dance games so I get to play almost everything but prefer PC and gears was easy to beat cant remember what difficulty level it was on probably normal or high but that wouldn’t change the fact I found it crap

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  • You are flat out wrong

    $100 million spent on nothing but a name and the possibility of a game in 2016. Well done.

  • kreator

    XBO FTW!

    • You are flat out wrong

      lmao buying dried up IP to excite the dumbass fanbase. Yeah, OK. If you consider that winning.

      • godlike01

        life so pathetic u spend it trolling xbox articles.. some weak attempt to justify your forced poverty purchase of the PS3.5 over the superior Microsoft (PC/XBOX) combo

        • You are flat out wrong

          No self-respecting PC gamer is getting the Bone, loser. :)

          • godlike01

            SHUT UP ZAIRE

          • Adam Mcvay

            Gears of war is coming to PC Black Tusk is a PC orientated company. eat that FANBOYS

      • kreator

        The only dumbass here is you!

  • GremDude

    $100m seems high for an IP that has seen its day come and go. Epic had no intention of making another Gears game. I am sure MS paid way less than $100m for it!

    • Iain Chambers

      Well as pointed out there is a large amount of none-game related sales connected to it books/memorabilia so $100m isnt out the question

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  • krm

    What a pity!! From now I will never have a chance to play a GeoW at 1080p and 60fps.

    • Adam Mcvay

      That’s not true its getting made for PC as well, best get a better graphics card come 2016 (“,)

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  • robert griffin

    Some people dont understand business to the person or company with no money to invest this makes no sense but if you have the resources this is a winner because your buying a franchise not just a game which means movie rights , dolls, games etc… etc…

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