Microsoft's Phil Spencer spoke with OXM, and said that the series is taking a step back from out of the limelight, to allow new IP's to flourish.
"I love the Gears franchise, I think Epic's done a really nice job building that," Spencer commented. "I think there's an opportunity to spend some time on Gears and on what it means. It's a rare franchise that managed to ship four times on the platform - 1, 2, 3 and then Judgment.
"I also think it's also a really interesting time to launch new IP, and that's something we're really invested in," he went on. "You saw Quantum Break, you saw Sunset Overdrive, you saw Crimson Dragon, you saw games big and small from many different developers."
"I think we were counting, and we had eight or nine different nationalities on stage. It's a cool opportunity to bring a lot of new content," he concluded.