If Epic makes another game in the Gears of War franchise - highly likely give its success - the developer will make sure it feels "fresh and new".

"In the future, who knows?" Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski said during a VGA press conference following the announcement of Fortnite.

"We could be faced with the console transition at some point. We would certainly love to make more experiences in the Gears universe. If we get around to it, I want to make sure we switch it up sufficiently so it still feels like Gears DNA, but it feels fresh and new."

Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 3 launched to critical and commercial acclaim. It sold over three million copies worldwide during its first week on sale. The franchise has generated over one billion dollars in sales.

Bleszinski once again stressed that Gears remains closely linked to Xbox maker Microsoft - casting doubt on the possibility of the franchise ever appearing on a Sony console.

"It's technically capable, but we have a good deal with Microsoft, so that's the home of Gears for the foreseeable future," he said.

"Business is business man. We could speculate about anything. What if streaming online services decided they wanted to make a great deal with us? Then Gears would be a streaming game. But as of right now, Microsoft's been an amazing partner for us."

Bleszinski said he hoped the stonking success of Gears of War 3 would help drag the announced movie project out of "development limbo". "It's still in a little bit of a movie development limbo right now," he said, "but hopefully with the success of 3 we'll see it poke back up."

During the press conference Bleszinski was asked about the future of Unreal, an Epic-owned franchise that has gone dark in recent years.

The outspoken developer said he would love to reboot it - but the chances of him doing so seem low.

"I will tell you right now, if you could magically double Epic's team temporarily and just build another game like that I would love to do it," he said.

"I've had all sorts of crazy ideas. I think it would be amazing to reboot the original Unreal with a Fallout/Skyrim vibe, where it's more about exploration than it is about action, and more RPG elements.

"But we're a slave to our success with games like Gears and Infinity Blade. Thankfully we're able to craft a new IP with something like Fortnite right now."