Following a visually stunning and technologically impressive Unreal Engine 5 demo, rumors of a Gears of War remaster in the works, very little light has been shed on the next official entry in the series.
The Coalition took over the development of the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games once the rights were acquired by Xbox. Epic Games and The Coalition have worked closely since this acquisition with the current Gears developer being in conversation with Epic about the development of Unreal Engine for the past decade. This extremely popular games engine is rolling out its fifth iteration this console generation, and several developers both big and small are using its advanced features to craft their games. The Coalition is just one of many developers confirmed to be making their next game with Unreal Engine 5, though it appears that the Xbox-owned studio is a bit more involved with this new games engine than most.
An Unreal Engine 5 demo created by The Coalition was recently shared by the Xbox YouTube channel, showing a taste of the engine's potential. While the video itself has nothing to do with the Gears franchise, an article about it on the Xbox website gives a bit more information about the studio and its projects. After expressing her excitement about Unreal Engine 5's capacity for the development of realistic textures and character models, The Coalition technical director Kate Rayner is asked about how the engine will impact future Gears of War games. Rayner doesn't give concrete details about Gears of War 6 but instead goes on to further praise Unreal Engine 5.
This non-committal statement coupled with rumors of The Coalition working on a non-Gears game might lead a lot of fans to be pessimistic about the future of the franchise. This view is not totally unwarranted given the available information, but the fact that Gears of War was mentioned at all in this Xbox-created piece is also enough to yield reasonable speculation. The Coalition is a Microsoft-owned studio, so while the article follows a classic interview format, it isn't exactly the same thing. In other words, if Xbox didn't want anyone getting their hopes up for a Gears game that isn't in development, the franchise likely wouldn't have been mentioned at all.
Still, details about a potential Gears of War 6 are far from confirmed, and The Coalition could still be years away from talking about the game. The studio will probably open up about its current project relatively soon, but only time will tell whether it will please or disappoint Gears of War fans.
Source: Xbox/YouTube, Xbox
