Gears of War was the standout exclusive title for the Xbox 360 during it’s second year and spawned three sequels. Despite its success, the series’ future is uncertain.

In a discussion with IGN on Podcast Unlocked, Phil Spencer talked about how the series essentially “ran its course on 360.”

I want to find a great Gears game. I thought we did a good job with Judgment, but I don’t think it hit the level of quality we saw in the previous games. I think review scores showed that. Sales showed that. I really think we need to take a step back with Epic and think about… I don’t want to call it a reboot because I think it’s an overused term but think about where that franchise goes and how to expand what it was.

I’d love to have that conversation. I do talk to the Epic guys often. They’re also busy right now. I think they’ve said Gears is kind of on the back burner for them. So I think it would be a situation where the opportunity came up at the right time it’d be great to sit down with them. They’re again the right team to work on that game. Trying to find another team to do that game I think is possible, but I think you’d want to make sure you did that very carefully along with them to make sure we had the right thing in place.

I think that franchise would need to be… not be reworked but think about how to expand that universe and what people are doing. Maybe make it more gritty, I don’t know. You’d want to do something with it, because I think it ran its course on 360. And it was a great success on the 360, but it doesn’t quite have the story arc of a thing like Halo or something, at least the way it’s played out in the games.

Gears has certainly brought legions of players to Microsoft’s platform. It would be a shame if we saw the last of Marcus Fenix.