With Gears of War 2 recently released and already a firm contender for bit-tech's Game of The Year, it would only make sense that Epic would want to get to work on the next game in the hit series, right?

Wrong.

In fact, according to Epic's Mark Rein the company hasn't even started thinking about making Gears of War 3 yet, officially. Rein went so far as to tell Eurogamer that any rumours about the title were total nonsense.

What rumours, you ask? Well, the word over at CVG is that Epic is planning to have the third Gears of War game out in time for Christmas 2010, with the game definitely set to feature five-player co-op. Anything to outdo Left 4 Dead, eh?

Rein denies both of these points too though, saying that Epic is still too busy working on patches and tweaks for Gears of War 2 to yet start work on Gears of War 3. On the plus side though at least he isn't denying that there will be a third game!

If you've not played Gears of War 2 yet then you can read our full review for more details, which is as close as you'll get to the full game if you don't have an Xbox 360 - Epic have promised there'll not be a PC release of the game, ever.

Are you eagerly awaiting Gears of War 3, or are you more interested in other games over the next few years? Let us know what you think in the forums.