In addition to Microsoft acquiring the Gears of War IP, it was announced that new Microsoft studio Black Tusk will assume the development role and become the Gears of War franchise studio going forward. In addition, Microsoft has confirmed that Rod Fergusson (who was the executive producer of Gears of War 3) will be overlooking the franchise at Black Tusk. (Fergusson left Epic and then went to Irrational where he helped get BioShock Infinite out the door, and then he was to head up a new studio for 2K, but it looks like that the draw of being able to work on Gears of War again was simply too strong for him.)
As for the future of the franchise, Microsoft promises that we will hear more about the next Gears of War title later this year. We suspect it will be an announcement of a Gears of War title for the Xbox One to arrive in 2015. There will be no Gears of War title this year.
Black Tusk was working on something, as announced previously. We still don’t know exactly what it is, but we are told that plans are for the development of that title to continue, so it has not been shelved yet. Clearly, however, the focus of the studio will be the Gears of War franchise going forward.