The head of the Gears of War series will be integrated into the ranks of Blizzard Entertainemnt. Leave a franchise that saw birth.
Rod Fergusson, head of the Gears of War series, announced through his personal Twitter account his departure from The Coalition this March. The Canadian producer, who captained the beginning of the saga in Epic Games back in 2005 and 2006, leaves Xbox Game Studios and will become part of Blizzard Entertainment to take over the Diablo saga.
Its task will be, essentially, to supervise that everything is in order in this veteran intellectual property of the giant Blizzard: “From this month of March, I will join Blizzard to supervise the Diablo saga. Leaving leaves me a bittersweet taste because I love the Gears family; to fans and everyone in both The Coalition and Xbox, ”he begins by saying in his message. "Thank you all, it has been an honor and a privilege to work with all of you," he ends.
Starting in March, I will join Blizzard to oversee the Diablo franchise. Leaving is bittersweet as I love our Gears family, the fans, and everyone at The Coalition and Xbox. Thank you, it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you all. pic.twitter.com/0FuO3RFYSQ
– Rod Fergusson (@GearsViking) February 5, 2020
Rod Fergusson, a long career in large video game franchises
Rod Fergusson's profile is particularly close to the sagas of success. As a developer, he has worked on intellectual properties such as Half-Life or SioShock; but if there is a saga for which it is recognized by all, it is Gears of War (now simply Gears), where it participated since the launch of the first installment until now, in 2019, when Gears 5 revealed the great state of health of the license.
Sonada was his march of Epic Games to sign for what at that time was called Microsoft Game Studios on the occasion of the purchase of the license by the Redmond company in 2014. It was then that Fergusson went on to assume one of the positions of greater responsibility within The Coalition (Black Tusk Studios) for Gears of War to remain what fans understood since the golden age of Xbox 360.
Releases such as Gears of War 4, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Gears 5 and two spin off: Gears POP and Gears Tactics are extracted from its mandate. Since March 2020, Fergusson's new role will lead him to the supervision of a saga that is more than two decades old and now faces the most complex stages of the development of Diablo IV, the next numbered iteration of the saga. He won't do it alone, however, since Mike Ybarra, also on Xbox once, signed for Blizzard at the end of 2019.
On behalf of The Coalition, the Canadian study has not indicated who will now be its substitute.
