After the announcement of Gears of War: E-Day in the course of the Xbox Games Showcase. some followers expressed concern that Microsoft and Gears developer The Coalition had been strolling away from the story set out in Gears 4 and the newest sport within the sequence, Gears 5.
Not so, in response to Microsoft. In a publish on Xbox Wire, Microsoft touched on the way forward for Gears, insisting “this isn’t the top of different ongoing tales within the Gears sequence.”
“The workforce is content material with the tales informed in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is not at all abandoning them, however the collective ardour for such an iconic origin story was just too nice to disregard,” Microsoft mentioned. ”The story of E-Day and the origins of Marcus and Dom are such highly effective, pivotal occasions that The Coalition couldn’t wait to inform it.”
Warning: Spoilers for Gears 5 observe.
2019’s Gears 5 ends on one thing of a cliffhanger, with Kait telling Marcus Fenix she’s off to seek out Queen Reyna. Beforehand, the participant, aka Kait, decides to save lots of both JD Fenix or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the opposite.
Gears of War: E-Day, nonetheless, is ready 14 years earlier than the occasions of Gears of War 1, and tells the story of Emergence Day (the day the Locust burst out from beneath the earth to assault Sera).
In the Xbox Wire publish, The Coalition artistic director Matt Searcy and model director Nicole Fawcette mentioned the choice to make a prequel subsequent, fairly than the maybe anticipated Gears 6. “We’re tremendous proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the tales that had been informed,” Fawcette mentioned. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any approach. But in [this] second, we had a chance to put in writing our subsequent step, and this one simply felt too good to overlook.”
In a follow-up interview with IGN, Searcy expanded on the choice. “For us, there’s a story right here for our studio of how we discovered our option to E-Day that was about reflection,” Searcy defined. “And a part of it’s simply the vitality that rolls up about, this was the story we wished to inform right now. So it wasn’t actually about selecting between this stuff, it was only a snowball of the stuff that was on the desk and that is the one we wished to do proper now.
“We love these characters. It’s very nice to have a franchise the place we will inform tales in other places. For us, that is simply the one we wished to work on now, that is the one which felt proper.”
The choice to go along with a prequel was a subject of dialogue when IGN interviewed Xbox boss Phil Spencer at IGN Live. Spencer mentioned doing a prequel as an alternative of Gears 6 is “a pleasant alternative for that workforce to determine their Gears.”
“Following on Gears 5 simply due to the numerical factor, I believe it will simply… this was a chance for them to take it again to an origin story that has loads of actual depth to it by way of Emergence Day and inform that story by means of The Coalition as it’s immediately,” Spencer mentioned. “I believed, what an awesome alternative. I used to be excited.”
The query, in fact, is with Gears of War: E-Day in lively improvement at The Coalition, it might be a while earlier than Microsoft continues the overarching Gears storyline with a possible Gears 6. Some followers have advised one other workforce be handed the duty of continuous the story in partnership with The Coalition, however Microsoft has but to point a willingness to take action.
Gears of War: E-Day is at the moment and not using a launch window. For extra of what Microsoft has up its sleeve, take a look at all the things introduced on the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
