Gears of War’s Black Tusk Studios Renamed ‘The Coalition’

Black Tusk Studios is no more. Now, Delta Squad and the rest of Gears of Wars' COGs will be handled by The Coalition.

Rod Fergusson, the former studio head of Black Tusk Studios, has announced on the Xbox Wire that his studio as we know it is no more. In its place is The Coalition. While this appears to be a simple name change, the Vancouver-based studio has its reasons for this rebranding. Microsoft's major video game studios are named after their specialties, such as 343 Industries focusing on the Halo franchise and Turn 10 making the Forza racing series. Now, Black Tusk Studios has adopted a moniker that's much more inline with what Fergusson's team has been focusing on, Gears of War.

Here's what Fergusson had to say about the name change:

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.

We're expecting Fergusson and The Coalition will be in attendance at E3 2015 to showcase the Xbox One reboot of the first Gears of War title and to unveil their big mystery title set in the Gears universe. We're got our fingers crossed for Carmine to be the new protagonist.