Cliff Bleszinski on Gears of War future, would love to "reboot" Unreal

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 December, 2011

"We could be faced with the console transition at some point."

If Epic makes another game in the Gears of War franchise - highly likely give its success - the developer will make sure it feels "fresh and new".

"In the future, who knows?" Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski said during a VGA press conference following the announcement of Fortnite.

"We could be faced with the console transition at some point. We would certainly love to make more experiences in the Gears universe. If we get around to it, I want to make sure we switch it up sufficiently so it still feels like Gears DNA, but it feels fresh and new."

Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 3 launched to critical and commercial acclaim. It sold over three million copies worldwide during its first week on sale. The franchise has generated over one billion dollars in sales.

Bleszinski once again stressed that Gears remains closely linked to Xbox maker Microsoft - casting doubt on the possibility of the franchise ever appearing on a Sony console.

"It's technically capable, but we have a good deal with Microsoft, so that's the home of Gears for the foreseeable future," he said.

"Business is business man. We could speculate about anything. What if streaming online services decided they wanted to make a great deal with us? Then Gears would be a streaming game. But as of right now, Microsoft's been an amazing partner for us."

Bleszinski said he hoped the stonking success of Gears of War 3 would help drag the announced movie project out of "development limbo". "It's still in a little bit of a movie development limbo right now," he said, "but hopefully with the success of 3 we'll see it poke back up."

During the press conference Bleszinski was asked about the future of Unreal, an Epic-owned franchise that has gone dark in recent years.

The outspoken developer said he would love to reboot it - but the chances of him doing so seem low.

"I will tell you right now, if you could magically double Epic's team temporarily and just build another game like that I would love to do it," he said.

"I've had all sorts of crazy ideas. I think it would be amazing to reboot the original Unreal with a Fallout/Skyrim vibe, where it's more about exploration than it is about action, and more RPG elements.

"But we're a slave to our success with games like Gears and Infinity Blade. Thankfully we're able to craft a new IP with something like Fortnite right now."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 5 months ago

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  • Ceelion #1 5 months ago

    "I think it would be amazing to reboot the original Unreal with a Fallout/Skyrim vibe, where it's more about exploration than it is about action, and more RPG elements."

    No. Dear God no. You already tarnished the flawless UT2k4 by releasing UT3, but that's no reason to take the franchise out back and end it's life.

    Just give us an UT-HD remake and we'll all pretend you didn't even try and hint at turning one of the best FPS series ever made into an exploration RPG.

    EDIT: Well that's me told then haha.

    I have a problem in that wherever I see 'Unreal', I immediately see 'Unreal Tournament'. My bad folks!

    Still. Another UT would be lovely.
    Edited by Ceelion at 12/12/11 @ 11:31

  • Shakey_Jake33 #2 5 months ago

    Indeed, there's a difference between a reboot and just going in a completely misguided direction.

    Just go back and look at what made UT99 such an excellent game, and what made UT3 such a bad one.

  • Adamical #3 5 months ago

    What the first guy said.
    Edited by Adamical at 12/12/11 @ 10:28

  • Alf-Life #4 5 months ago

    zombies, fresh and new



    :p

  • asphaltcowboy #5 5 months ago

    He was talking about the original Unreal, not Unreal Tournament (which is an entirely separate series as far as most people are concerned). I think it could work. The original Unreal did feel like you were exploring a new strange world.

  • Uchikoma #6 5 months ago

    @Ceelion

    I can't help but disagree. Unreal and Unreal Tournament are pretty distinct entities already. Frankly I'd welcome the return of the single player Unreal franchise so long as it's closer in feel to Unreal 1 than Unreal 2 as Unreal 1 had a lot more mystery to it and Na Pali felt like a genuinely alien world to me.

    That said if they do revisit Unreal I think they need to focus on the single player element and keep UT as the multiplayer focus.

    Also I've never understood the disdain for UT3, of all the post UT games it's the one that most reminded me of the 'feel' of the first UT.

  • WeakOrbit #7 5 months ago

    Bleszinski said he hoped the stonking success of Gears of War 3 would help drag the announced movie project out of "development limbo
    Better start shaving the gorrila's for the locust/Fenix.

  • JHo #8 5 months ago

    As much as I loath the whole "homoerotic-spacemarine-semper-fucking-fi-American" bullshit that made most of the Gears trilogy I must admit that the games were quite good. Technically flawless (campaign mode at least) and graphically awesome, the core gameplay mechanics just felt right. The whole idea of reloading your weapon at just the right moment like an absurd take on an old school golf swing meter in EA's PGA series was brilliant.

    But how cool would a new Unreal title be with a game world like Skyrim? Incredible!! If Cliffy could recreate that feeling of awe from the original Unreal game, you know, when you first step off the exploding mothership onto an alien world, then couple that with an open world concept and truly next-gen graphics I think I would have a game-gasm.

    BTW, I wonder how many people reading this even remember of ever even knew about the original, genre changing Unreal game? Man, I'm getting old.

  • darm #9 5 months ago

    I'd love to play Gears on PlayStation, maybe I would even have played some multiplayer if it got released there(I don't bother paying for live gold as I'm mostly in for the singleplayer experience). But frankly speaking I can live with having to turn on my old 360 for this series. After all, almost every other good game is available on PS3, and I'm not going to ever have 'platinum' in Gears with their crazy 'Seriously' trophies.

  • Seoh #10 5 months ago

    @Ceelion

    I think he's on about unreal not unreal tournament, the original unreal was a story driven FPS set on a massive world.

  • asphaltcowboy #11 5 months ago

    @JHo I think "quite good" is selling Gears rather short, but the rest of your post is good ;)

  • Pumpatron #12 5 months ago

    "I've had all sorts of crazy ideas. I think it would be amazing to reboot the original Unreal with a Fallout/Skyrim vibe, where it's more about exploration than it is about action, and more RPG elements.

    Sounds like a great idea to me.

  • Eraser #13 5 months ago

    I doubt you could do an Unreal remake that retains that same feeling of awe and splendor that the original had. We shouldn't forget that in May '98 when Unreal was released, all we had seen so far were the brown and gray corridors of Quake and Quake II.

    Stepping out into the world from the crashed space ship at the start of the game had such an incredible impact, I had never seen something as grandiose like that before. The colorful world, the rocky mountains with the waterfall towering high above you, it was just mind boggling. Same with the Sun Spire. That was just so huge. And the music made it all the more powerful.

    Fast forward to 2011 and we've had numerous games that show large open landscapes like what we've seen in Unreal. It's just not special anymore. I think they could remake Unreal and show a huge open valley, but it just wouldn't make the same impact like Unreal did almost 14 years ago.

  • AHiFi #14 5 months ago

    Was playing Unreal last weekend. It really was revolutionary for its time. The sense of mystery was something I only encountered in one other game - Halo.

  • jedi99 #15 5 months ago

    One of the first games I played on the PC was Unreal. The graphical detail at the time was superb ( kept looking up at the sky to see the sun streaming down). Gameplay was also great. I would pay for a reboot of Unreal (only if it's on the PC as well)

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 5 months ago

    @Erasor: I doubt you could do an Unreal remake that retains that same feeling of awe and splendor that the original had. We shouldn't forget that in May '98 when Unreal was released, all we had seen so far were the brown and gray corridors of Quake and Quake II.

    Stepping out into the world from the crashed space ship at the start of the game had such an incredible impact, I had never seen something as grandiose like that before. The colorful world, the rocky mountains with the waterfall towering high above you, it was just mind boggling.

    I don't know what games you have been playing lately but most of them are far more "brown and grey" than Quake ever was :) Unreal still has everything going for it that it had back then. A remake or a sequel will definitely work.

  • Nova1977 #17 5 months ago

    I was so hoping they'd return to Nali Pali and the world of Unreal again, I'd actually like a open world version of it too just as long as they keep it as tense and exciting as the original Unreal game was.

  • JHo #18 5 months ago

    @AHiFi

    Good point!! That's the closest I've felt to the sense of excitement and for lack of a better word, "awe" that I've felt in a videogame since Unreal. When you finally crash land on Halo and start "Flawless Cowboy" my balls always shrunk a bit with that sense of the unknown. When you crawl out of the dropship and first get your bearings it's truly an epic experience. The Banshees flying overhead, the sunlight dappling through the swaying trees, and then a fucking troop transport hovers over you and drops off a recon squad of Jackals and Grunts...

    Sooo awesome!!

  • Koborover #19 5 months ago

    It's a shame that the Unreal franchise got pushed aside at Epic by the success of Gears of War. Played UT to death, but for years now my "mindless sci-fi multiplayer shooter with bizarre physics"-needs are filled by Halo. Epic should revive UT and give Halo 4 a run for its money.

  • Quixz #20 5 months ago

    If it wasn't for Gears these guys would have been in trouble. I know they license the Unreal Engine but why would anyone want to buy something without a convincing demo.

    Unreal 2s XMP mod was SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!

  • Snaggletooth #21 5 months ago

    Man.....I thought the original Unreal game series was totally forgotten. I've not heard anyone talk about it for years. I've been hoping for something new from the original Unreal IP for a decade, but had lost all hope. Even though nothing in this story says they are going to do it, it gives me a bit of hope. Imagine how awesome this could be if they made it with the hardware available these days, in a huge open world. Just make it happen cliff, pretty please.
    Edited by Snaggletooth at 12/12/11 @ 12:52

  • Eraysor #22 5 months ago

    Make UT pretty with the same flawless soundtrack and I'd buy it in a second.

  • RedSparrows #23 5 months ago

    I disagree that just because other titles do large, gorgeous worlds means Unreal wouldn't be able to pull it off today.

    There aren't enough sci-fi vistas, imo. The amount of time I have spent salivating over some Halo levels means I want more - if Unreal were to take a Rage/Borderlands approach, minus the latter's XP, but actually be colourful and set on stunning jungle/pastoral worlds, then yes please.

    I.e Avatar - crap story + Halo + more + Unreal.

  • spekkeh #24 5 months ago

    Yeah Unreal was really cool with its open outside alien world; one of the first games that did cinematic FPS set pieces too (the first time all the lights slowly went out and an alien ran at you screaming oh lordie). IIRC it quickly deteriorated in a drab corridor shooter pretty soon afterwards, at least I lost interest then so don't know if it stayed that way, but it would definitely be nice if they revisited that and did it right. Also together with Diablo one of the first games I was able to play online, with SEGA's Heat.net service, that was pretty cool.
    Edited by spekkeh at 12/12/11 @ 20:45

  • Kaminari #25 5 months ago

    Unreal must have been one of the very last high profile games using tracker music. I can still remember the terrific soundtrack by Alex Brandon, Andrew Sega, Dan Granpre, Michiel Van Den Bos... KFMF rulez!

  • azic #26 5 months ago

    On the one hand the dev team is stretched...
    But they can craft a new ip in a fortnight?

    Am I missing something here?

    Or is this the usual " its All meta" CliffyB BS?

  • ctankep #27 5 months ago

    Even if he got his way -- Unreal x exploration would still be terrible because of the lack of any meaningful interaction w/ the environment besides sight -seeing. You see for the last 20+ years very few people, the least being Epic Megagames [ mega ] have actually done the game design or computer science to create solutions to the problems of what players might do inside such a world, how to organise that content, and also just plain produce it w/ consistency.

    Unfortunately FPS game design hasn't changed much since "Quake" came out and you can boil everything down to essentially drawing a line from one point in 3D space to another otherwise known as hit detection. Around this premise, there really hasn't been much going on apart from adding pissy little things like damage modifiers, aim sway and so on.

    -

    Admittedly, "Gears" paired the 'pop & stop' cover system to "Halo's" '30-second action bubbles", but games bar the exception of the 1st "Fear" mostly suffer from super weak AI and poor level design which seems to be par for the course these days. While everybody lauds the realistic task -based AI management in "Fear" why is it that nobody has improved on it, or even utilises it given that it's been made open source for 3 or 4 years now? You can blame the rise & rise of 'monster closets' on "Call of Duty" which gives exciting set pieces but at the cost of being one -dimensional, or being responsive otherwise known as 'skill'.

    Despite the failure of "APB" I think Dave Jones had the right idea. Persistent, cloud -based FPS in large areas w/ dynamic ways to create emergent play. Braben's canned game "The Outsider" was going in that direction too. Shame that given the chance to make something new, Cliff -notes goes for a "Tower Defense" clone?
    Game industry is lame.



    -- Chuan
    Edited by ctankep at 13/12/11 @ 04:40

  • Ahskay #28 5 months ago

    How about giving us an HD update of Unreal 2's XMP?

  • Turrican_Freak #29 5 months ago

    Another Unreal? Call back James Schmalz and make another SP one in the vibe of the first Unreal. Daring art style, lots exploration and a tangible atmosphere.

    Making another Unreal tournament would be a really uninteresting thing to do, there are many free games (warsaw, nexuiz)that are much better then the latest installment in the series.

    And remember that you can have a multiplayer-DM experience in a single player game too.

  • cjb110 #30 5 months ago

    @Ceelion actually I would quite like both! Reboot Unreal Tournament with the new UnrealTech engine, make it the show-piece again. But an open-world FPS that's not quite as hard as STALKER would be good too.