Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein has expressly denied claims made by analyst Michael Pachter that the Gears of War studio regrets signing on with Microsoft to make the game exclusively for the Xbox 360.
Speaking with GameTrailers’ Geoff Keighley on Bonus Round, notoriously outspoken analyst Michael Pachter said he believed Epic was starting to regret signing an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Gears of War, and that it no longer made sense for third-party publishers to stick with one platform and one platform alone.
“I think the Epic guys can’t wait until they can start doing multiplatform games,” said Pachter. “I think that Microsoft has a contract to make sure that they get that sequel, but I think Epic regrets signing that contract … You’re up to 11 million PS3 in the US and probably a similar number in Europe, and you’ve got a 20 million addressable market with a game like Gears of War. I mean, that thing would easily sell 3 or 4 million on the PS3 and that’s a lot of profit.”
These comments were picked up by VG247 yesterday, when they were rebutted in the comments by a surprising source – no less than Epic co-founder Mark Rein himself. “Michael is wrong. We have a great relationship with Microsoft and we have no regrets,” Rein stated, going on to lay the verbal smacketh-down on one of the other commenters who claimed that Epic had been unsuccessfully shopping the game around before Microsoft picked it up (and had to fight tooth-and-nail to keep the chainsaw melee combat in).
So there you go, people – Epic doesn’t regret signing up with the House of Gates after all. It’s a good thing, too, because Gears of War is one of the console’s powerhouse titles. What would Microsoft ever do without a G* of War of their very own?
I’m still waiting for Grapes of War on the Nintendo Wii, myself.
(VG247)
