Not only is Gears of War 3 the final part of a trilogy, it could end up being the swansong for the franchise. During an exclusive chat with Pocket-lint, Epic Games has hinted that it may focus its attention away from Gears of War, thanks to the changing face of the videogames technology.

"Right now, we're really focused on 3," said Rod Fergusson, the game's executive producer. "We're still applying servers, and we're still getting ready for launch day. And still focusing on what we still need to do for Gears 3, so we sort of have the blinders on right now. But, I think that once we have that afterglow and wake up from sleeping, we will have to look around.

"The industry is changing quite a bit," he added. "With mobile and social, and consoles with the threat of next generations. So, it's hard to say what we're going to do next."

Certainly, on that subject, Fergusson believes that the iPad is becoming more and more important to the games industry: "I think it's great. It's an expander. I think that we're getting more gamers into the mix instead of stealing anybody's audience.

"My mum wasn't a gamer, and now she plays games with her friends. She gets into that mindset, and so, to me, it's a great broadening of the audience," he added.

However, the future of Gears and further investment in iPad development aside, Epic won't be abandoning the Xbox 360 just yet: "We're just finding a new audience. But there's still going to be a demand for the traditional forms of gaming," said Fergusson.

And there could be even more bled out of this generation of console yet: "Getting to know the platform more and more, and with the SDK changes and what our engine team has been able to do with the engine, I never say never.

"I think I was quoted by some reporter when I was drunk at a party that Gears 2 was the best you could ever do, and look what we did with 3. I've learned my lesson."

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