Hi everyone - I'm Rod Fergusson, former studio head of Black Tusk Studios.

It’s not what you think.

Beginning today, the Vancouver-based Xbox team working on the Gears of War franchise will be known as The Coalition. What's in a name? In short, The Coalition speaks to who we are as a team, and what it is we're working on.

A coalition is a team of diverse individuals working together for a common purpose, a concept that we feel describes our studio quite well.

Fans will also recognize the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) from Gears of War lore.

When people hear 343 Industries, they associate it with Halo; when they hear Turn 10 Studios, they know that’s who makes Forza. Moving forward, when you hear The Coalition, we want you to think of Gears of War.

To see our new logo in motion, and to learn more about The Coalition, watch the special edition Rodcast above.

Speaking of Gears of War, we're getting close to E3, where we will share more on what's next for Gears of War. Specifically, Gears fans should be sure to tune in to Xbox Daily: LIVE @ E3, on Monday June 15 at 4PM Pacific to see what we're working on.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/06/games-introducing-the-coalition

black tusk sounded a lot better IMO. also, such a shame that MS is turning this into a "gears of war studio". their new IP looked interesting before it was axed.

Agree. This name basically says: "We will never work on anything other than Gears ever again".

MS Vancuber to Vancouver to coalition. They keep changing names but why? They havent released a single game since their formation.

I was over Gears after 3. Really hope Microsoft doubles down on new IPs because the Halos, Gears, and Fables aren't doing it for me.

Not a fan of the new name. But their name dosen't matter, what matters is whether or not they make great Gears games.

This is a worrying trend. Why would they want to get associated with an IP so much? Already people have started using jokes. New IPs are the reason I am still playing even after so many years. New IPs are lifeblood of gaming.

Liked Black Tusk better, new name sounds cheesy

That's ... kind of sad. I wonder if their original IP is dead forever?

Shame MS canned one of their rare new first party IP to instead make Gears of War exclusively. Previous name was better as well.

Maybe they will revisit that other game with another studio some day.