He goes on to call succeeding with a major title as "golden handcuffs." There's a sign on his door that reads "how will this help Gears ship?" And that means he doesn't have the freedom and agility to pursue ideas and concepts that aren't going to help with that shipping goal.

Capps then states that "games should compete in fun-per-minute." He talks about the original Gears being slighted for its short length. "I think that was really wrong," he reveals, explaining that it had a higher density of fun-per-minute than if the game had been 20 hours.

He also recalls starting at EB Games when he was just 15 years old. Games were, at the time, $59.99. Today, he says, Gears 2 will sell for $59.99. While the retail price isn't rising, the cost of development certainly is.

"I worry that we forget what made us great," says an introspective Capps, going on to lament the power of a small group in a room talking about design. "We want to learn again from casual games, and get back to our roots."

He recalls that Gears of War was a 24-man team that then grew into a 100 developers. And going forward, this makes the development of new projects and IPs difficult. "It's hard to give a couple guys the freedom they need develop a new IP inside the behemoth," said Capps.

"You can't keep small, but be in the arms-race that we're in with Gears." Capps said that creation of new IP requires a nimble company. This, he continued, is why they recently purchased a developer called Chair. He hopes Epic can learn from them, explaining, "We're trying to basically not f**k them up, while bringing some process."

Capps also announced that Epic is starting a comic book initiative. "We're looking at that as a way to try out new ideas."