CaptDS9E on 08 December 2008
"MS does not own the Gears Of War franchise. They just payed Epic a lot of money to keep it exclusive. Just because they published it doesn't mean that they own it."
They own the publishing rights to the first two games on console, just like they do for the first Mass Effect. And saying they paid Epic a lot of money is probably way off. No one dreamed how big the series would get, and MS already had a publishing deal for the first few games in the series. Microsoft promoted the crap out of the first Gears, and it paid off. The series has become huge not only for Microsoft, but Epic.
