Gears of War series developer The Coalition is apparently branching out from the acclaimed shooter series and towards a new property, with rumors flying that it could be a return for Perfect Dark. The Vancouver-based studio was given the Gears of War IP by Microsoft back in January 2014, after the tech giant bought out the rights to the franchise from previous developer Epic Games. From there, The Coalition would go on to release both Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Gears of War 4.

The launch of Gears of War 4 in particular would be something of a success. Although in the eyes of some players the game did not quite reach the heights seen by the original trilogy, it was a solid step into the current console generation. Although the game's use of microtransactions was criticized in particular, nonetheless Gears of War 4 looked to be a foundation on which to build further Gears of War games.

Related: Gears of War 4 Microtransactions Are Out of Control

However, it looks as though The Coalition's next move will be to launch something new, and the developer will be having help. An update on the Storylab Productions official site suggests that the multimedia production house will be helping The Coalition with some kind of new project, with the Microsoft vendor advising that more details will be coming. At the moment, it's been suggested that the concept could be a return for beloved espionage shooter Perfect Dark, which has not seen a new release since 2005's Perfect Dark Zero - at least according to a cryptic post over on ResetERA.

Storylab and The Coalition do have a little bit of history together. The production house helped with the development of both Gears of War 4 and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which means that this relationship between the two developers doesn't come entirely out of the blue. However, until more details are gleaned about the project it's going to be hard to see exactly how much involvement Storylab will have. At the moment, it's not suggested that Perfect Dark remaster developer 4J Studios is involved either.

Whatever this project is, it will ideally go some way to addressing one of the concerns about the Xbox game lineup: a need for bigger exclusive games. Although the Xbox One is by no means a slouch, fans have been crying out for more exclusive content for the console, and so a standout exclusive game with strong Xbox One X ties would go a long way, particularly if it's tied to such a renowned property as Perfect Dark. Since Gears of War 5 is unlikely to have been forgotten as an idea entirely, this could mean Xbox users have a bright future ahead.

Interestingly enough, The Coalition had been working on a new IP before the studio was given Gears of War, and hopefully the team will be able to bring some of those lost concepts over to this new project, even if it does end up to be part of the Perfect Dark franchise. It might mean that a further Gears of War game is a ways off yet, but on the bright side at least the Gears of War movie has found itself a writer.

More: 10 Video Game Movies Stuck in Development Hell

Source: Storylab Productions (via GearNuke)