There are only two Gears of War games. And Epic have done both. That's continuity. But, for example, Call Of Duty? It's split between two developers. Infinity Ward and Treyarch. What does Mr. Gears of War - Dude "Clifford Bleszinski" Huge - think of such arrangements? Let's find out:
We’ve got a lot of ideas about where the franchise will go. But sometimes I feel a franchise loses something when it’s shifted off to another shop. You get the primary studio that really understands about the franchise, and sometimes the other studio that takes it over can do well, but there’s something lost in translation, like the game’s soul has gone.
All fine and good now, but what happens when you're offloading Gears of War 6 and Gears Of War Wars to other developers? Call of Duty-style development is 'soulless' says Bleszinski [Develop]