Gears of War 3 devs working on new IP

While the rate of releases in the Halo franchise only accelerated after the original trilogy's 2007 conclusion, it appears as if Microsoft's other Xbox 360-exclusive shooter franchise will take a different approach once it finishes its first cycle of games.

According to an Epic Games job posting, the next project for the Gears of War 3 team isn't a fourth installment in the series, but an all-new intellectual property. The company is currently hiring gameplay programmers to join the developers finishing up Gears of War 3 to work on "a new unannounced IP." Unfortunately, the posting suggested no details about the project, other than its expected use of Epic's own Unreal engine.

"Our gameplay programmers have an intrinsic understanding of what makes a game fun and the analytical mind to break that down into its constituent parts," the listing explains. "They experiment with game design and use rapid prototyping, yet have the engineering background to make strong architectural and algorithmic decisions. If you are a game designer trapped inside the body of an engineer, we'd like to hear from you."

For more on Epic Games' future and how the company aims to stay successful in a changing industry, check out GameSpot's recent interview with Epic president Mike Capps.