Microsoft-owned developer Black Tusk Studios is making “massive progress” on the upcoming Gears of War game for Xbox One. That’s according to Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, who this week met with the team, including studio head Rod Fergusson, in Vancouver and had positive things to say about what he saw.

Fergusson also seemed happy with the events of yesterday, he wrote after 1 AM today.

Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from creator Epic Games in January of this year. Official details about the game haven’t been announced, but Spencer says it’s not a reboot.

“The thing that was great about the early Gears of War games, to me, [was] just the epic scale of the settings that I was in,” he said back in October. “The story, the setting was a lot more what I would call soulful and maybe even a little dark. And [Rod Fergusson] and I have talked about this; I think the game over time became almost more of a parody of itself; not for any kind of horrible reasons. It’s hard to continue to manage the IP.”

“And Gears 2 did well, Gears 3 did well. So I thought the franchise continued to grow. But we’ve talked about getting back to something … I think the story and the setting and what they’re going through … in a Gears of War–the name of the game, it really meant something to what that game was about. We’ve got to get back to that. The feeling of those individuals.”

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