Cliff Bleszinski has suggested that the future of shooters lies in the direction laid out by the likes of BioShock and Deus Ex, hinting that his next project will be taking a similar path.

In an interview with Develop, Blesinzki expressed his admiration of Ken Levine’s BioShock and Harvey Smith’s Deus Ex, and went on to say how the ideas put forth in both games might influence the next Gears of War title.

‘When I first saw Bioshock I thought, “how is this going to sell?”‘ said Bleszinski. ‘As a nerd I thought it was amazing but I was worried that a fifteen year old kid would pick it up and think “what the f**k am I looking at”?’

‘But it pleased me to no end that the game did so well. I had a conversation with Harvey Smith – one of the lead designers on Deus Ex – and said to him the future of shooters is RPGs. He said he completely agreed.’

When pressed on how such elements might be manifest in the future of the Gears of War franchise, Blesinzki remained enigmatic. ‘I mean, one could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us,’ he said.