Epic preparing to unveil new Gears of War at E3

Unreal Engine maker Epic Games will announce a new installment for Gears of War, its popular third-person shooter series directed by Cliff Bleszinski, at E3 on Monday. Gears of War is one of the biggest franchises on Xbox 360. Epic, which is currently building its much anticipated Unreal Engine 4, often uses its Gears of War releases as a showcase for what other developers can accomplish with its game engine. Since debuting in 2006, the series has sold over 16 million total copies on Xbox 360 and on Windows, with 3 million of that coming from Gears of War 3's first week on sale last September. Game Informer revealed the new entry's existence with a preview of its next magazine issue's cover, but it disclosed hardly any details about the game other than that it will release for Xbox 360. Epic Games will reveal more information about the title at Monday's E3 press conference for Microsoft, which published the previous Gears of War games. [Update: Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, has tweeted that Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly, of which Epic owns a majority share, is involved with the new title in some form, although he didn't specify how.]