All of the mainline Gears of War games to date have been third-person shooters. Fans of the series looking for a Gears of War game in a different genre may eventually get one, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer and The Coalition creative director Chuck Osieja.

Appearing at the Xbox Fanfest event in Sydney, Australia, the pair fielded the question, "If Gears of War could expand into any other gaming genre, what would it be?" Spencer immediately stated that Osieja had to be careful about what he said, suggesting a project in a different genre is already in the works.

With Spencer, his boss, sitting directly next to him, Osieja gave a Microsoft-approved answer in a played-up voice. "At Microsoft, we evaluate all opportunities for our franchises. So, if the right opportunity presents itself, we'll explore that as something we can offer our fans." Spencer booed this response and even gave it a thumbs-down.

Spencer then stepped in to provide some further details, saying the Gears of War franchise's story could be told across "multiple gameplay genres."

"Definitely when we got the team together and talked about the future of Gears of War, I think there's multiple ways that you can tell that story," he said. "Multiple gameplay genres. I think it's a really big IP and it's an IP that could exist in linear form, in books--we've seen that; in different gaming genres."

The Gears of War franchise is one of the biggest and best-known in all of gaming, so there is a "lot of opportunity" for where it could go in the future, Spencer teased.

"You should understand that this franchise is important to use as a platform-holder as any franchise that we have and we wanted to be fully invested in where you want to go play the game," he added.

Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from creator Epic Games in 2014. October's Gears of War 4 is the first completely new entry in the series developed by Microsoft's The Coalition since the buyout.

The one canceled Gears of War game that we know about, Exile, was rumored to be a Kinect-controlled title for Xbox 360.

There is precedent of Microsoft expanding one of its shooter franchises to a new genre. The Halo series has the Halo Wars RTS franchise and received two top-down shooters int he form of Halo: Spartan Strike and Halo: Spartan Assault.

Gears of War 4 launches on October 11 for Xbox One and PC. In other news, The Coalition has told fans to "stay vigilant" as it relates to spoilers, which could pop up in the coming days.