Rod Fergusson, the head of The Coalition and the studio behind Gears of War, has announced that he will be leaving the studio and heading to Blizzard to oversee the Diablo franchise. Fergusson has been behind Gears of War since the first entry up to the latest one, playing an instrumental role in its development. “Leaving is bittersweet as I love our Gears family, the fans, and everyone at The Coalition and Xbox,” Fergusson stated before continuing, “Thank you, it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you all.”
Fergusson is often credited for saving the development behind Bioshock Infinite, as well with his part in Gears of War, and he has a storied history in the gaming industry. He started his career developing Gears of War back when the series was owned by Epic Games. In between Gears of War games, he worked at Irrational Games and later 2K and Black Tusk. Black Tusk would become The Coalition when Microsoft bought the studio and the rights to Gears of War. Gears 5 which launched in 2019 and will be the last Gears game that Fergusson will have worked on. He may have some influence on the Gears Tactics, a strategy game of the Gears universe, but he was not directly working on the game.
Gears Tactics was primarily developed by Splash Damage having The Coalition take a backseat, only advising on the general universe of the game. Despite ushering in the Gears series, Rod Fergusson won’t be seeing the end of the second trilogy and the series is still planned to continue.
Rod Fergusson’s move to Blizzard comes following several people of leadership leaving Blizzard including former president Michael Morhaime and Hearthstone lead Ben Brode. Blizzard taking on Rod Fergusson to lead Diablo is a natural move, and Blizzard especially with the Diablo series has been under pressure to release hit game to their customer base.