The development team at Black Tusk Studios is celebrating the one-year anniversary since it started to work on the Gears of War franchise with a Twitter message that does not offer any sort of information on the progress it has made on the new title associated with it.

The long-running series was acquired by Microsoft from Epic Games on January 27 of 2014, which provoked a major surprise among fans and led to rumors that the creators of the Unreal Engine were aiming to get out of the game development business altogether.

Since the Gears of War franchise switched companies, no clear information about its future has been offered, although executives said that they were aiming to preserve the core elements of the series, while also making sure that it appealed to modern gamers.

A lot of rumors have since appeared, most of them suggesting that Marcus Fenix was going to be dropped as a protagonist, but none of them have been confirmed so far.

The one-year anniversary message from Black Tusk Studios might be a sign that the studio is getting ready to deliver more information in the coming months.

Rod Fergusson, who was hired to work as a producer on the new Gears of War, also celebrated the occasion on social media.

The Xbox One needs all the big launches it can get

Gears of War was always one of the titles that drove sales for the Xbox brand, except for Judgment, which was launched in 2013 and failed to be loved by either fans or critics.

A new title could offer a solid boost to the Xbox One, which at the moment is lagging behind the PlayStation 4 from Sony in terms of worldwide sales.

Given that 343 Industries and Microsoft are working on Halo 5: Guardians, which is supposed to be launched in the fall of this year, a new Gears of War will probably be set to arrive in 2016.

It will be interesting to see whether the series can capture a new audience and if there are plans to also deliver it on the Windows 10 OS, given the fact that Microsoft wants to improve its gaming offerings.

Today marks the one year anniversary of acquiring the @GearsofWar franchise - we are humbled to be delivering on such a beloved experience — Black Tusk Studios (@blacktuskstudio) January 27, 2015