According to the developers of the Gears of War franchise, The Coalition, the studio is going to use Unreal Engine 5 going forward. This means that, if the Unreal Engine 5 trailers we’ve seen so far are to go by, future Gears of War games will be technical marvels that should make full use of the capabilities of the Xbox Series X. As for the bad news, well, it’s also because of this shift in the game engine that we might not see Gears of War 6 anytime soon.
Don’t Expect Gears of War 6 to Release Soon
After years of seeing the series’ popularity plateau, the Gears of War franchise saw a bit of a breakout year with back-to-back commercial and critical hits in Gears 5 and Gears Tactics. The two are now widely considered the best Xbox Series X games available. However, with the Xbox Series X now on the market, The Coalition has decided to look towards the future. As explained in its recent blog post, the studio broke the news that they are going to shift their resources to developing future games using Unreal Engine 5. The latest version of Epic Games’ popular in-game engine, Unreal Engine 5 was first unveiled on May 13, 2020, with a full version expected to release in late 2021. Although numerous in-game engines today can take advantage of the added hardware power of the next-gen consoles, only the Unreal Engine 5 was built with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in mind. With that said, the announcement that future Gears of War games will be using Unreal Engine 5 is a bittersweet moment. On one end, it does mean that Gears 6 (or whatever it will be called) will be much more beautiful than previous iterations. Unfortunately, it will come at the expense of The Coalition not “announcing any new projects or titles for some time.” As to when The Coalition will finish shifting its resources to develop next-gen titles remains unclear. If it’s any consolation, Gears of War fans don’t need to worry about The Coalition dropping support for Gears 5. In the same blog post, the studio assured fans that more content is coming for the latest mainline installment in the sci-fi shooter franchise. This will reportedly include Operations 7 and 8, which will add new characters, maps, and special events, to Gears 5. The Coalition has taken over the development of Gears of War games since 2014. The studio was formerly known as Black Tusk Studios and was handed the project following Microsoft’s acquisition of the IP from Epic Games. So far, The Coalition has released 3 new Gears of War games, as well as a remaster of the original Gears of War title in 2015. The next Gears of War game will mark the first in the series that will not see Rod Fergusson as the Executive Producer. Fergusson left The Coalition in 2020 to join Blizzard Entertainment and work on Diablo 4.
