Speaking to GameReactor, producer of Gears of War Cliff Bleszinski said that he would expect more sequels to be added to the Gears cannon on one condition: that they continue to succeed. “If Gears of War 2 is a success," he said, "then naturally we’ll look at a third. The same applies if number three sells well, then we’ll have to consider a fourth.”

This method of “wait and see” goes a bit against the current trend in the industry, which is to plan trilogies, prequel trilogies, and in-between trilogies right off the bat, as the design of the BioShock and Too Human series are being orchestrated. But Cliff sees it differently, saying, “I often feel that when a developer says ‘This is a trilogy’ right off the bat I think, ‘Shouldn’t they do the first game and see how it goes before you begin to think about a sequel? The market is incredibly tough. You never know how a game is going to fair.”

We’re pretty sure that while Cliff may want to meticulously plan out Epic’s budding franchise, Microsoft could be more anxious to get the wheels turning in the Gears of War factory. Back when the first Gears of War was released, former Microsoft exec Jeff Bell stated that the “Mad World” ad for the game served to “establish Marcus Fenix as the hero of the Gears of War trilogy." Shortly after this statement Epic’s Mark Rein asked “why stop there,” hinting that the series could go beyond three games.

There still seems to be some confusion as to how many Gears games are exactly planned, but we can be sure that Cliff shouldn’t be too worried about Gears of War 2 sales numbers, given the renowned success of the IP’s initial debut.