Gears of War maker Epic's ongoing set of misunderstandings with US mag, GamePro continues, this time vice president Mark Rein has been forced to put a starting price on the sale of his company.

Earlier this month Rein had to deny speculation in the same publication that Gears of War 2 was about to be revealed.

This time Rein is deflecting a report that Microsoft is set to buy his company for a nice, round one billion US dollars.

Speaking to the UK's Develop magazine, Rein states, "I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they're going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion.

"Because we don't want anyone thinking that we're cheap."

Of course, none of the above stands up as a denial that Microsoft is going to buy Epic. In fact, the immense popularity^* of its Unreal Engine 3 (recently licensed by GTA IV maker, Take Two, for example) as well as its already solid relationship with Microsoft with Gears would make it an ideal fit.

But maybe the folks at Epic have been down to the pub with the chaps from Halo maker, Bungie? The latter - having left the Microsoft fold due to stifled imaginations - might have looked into their steins and shaken their heads.

Yes, we know that is incredibly unlikely - however, Bungie's exit does leave a hole in Microsoft's development portfolio.

We await developments...

^*Of course, Unreal Engine 3 is not popular with everybody. Just ask Too Human developer, Silicon Knights, which is subpoenaing current license holders - see SPOnG from January 24th for more on this.