Gears of War 6 would’ve been a massive departure from previous games in the franchise, according to a former developer. The Gears of War series is one of Xbox’s core franchises right alongside Halo. The franchise made its debut back in 2006 as one of Xbox 360’s earliest blockbuster exclusives and helped establish Epic Games even further. The series has gone on to have five mainline entries and a couple of spin-offs, but has been notably absent for this generation. Gears 5 came out in 2019 and was received fairly well, but fans were confused as to what was taking so long for a new entry.
It turns out developer The Coalition was taking its time because it wasn’t making Gears 6, it has been working on a completely different game: Gears of War: E-Day. The game is a prequel to the first Gears and returns players to the stories of Dom and Marcus, the famed duo from the original trilogy. Needless to say, it’s a big deal and one that reignited a lot of hype in fans, including those who lost interest during the last two games. It seems to have been the right call and neither Xbox nor The Coalition are ruling out a proper Gears 6 at a later date, but this wasn’t the original plan.
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Speaking to Podcast Unlocked, former The Coalition head Rod Fergusson noted that Gears 6 would’ve taken players off of Sera and into the stars. The former Gears of War boss noted that the plan was to utilize some of the space technology left over by the UIR to go to a new planet and see what dangers are out there in the galaxy. The plan wasn’t to make it like Mass Effect and have players hopping between planets, but just have them exploring a new setting. It sounds like a pretty radical departure for the franchise, but it could’ve been interesting to see. The series has never left Sera and as far as Gears of War canon goes, there is no Earth in this universe. Sera is the closest thing to that. Of course, Gears 6 could theoretically change that and have players explore Earth or some other planet familiar to us, but given how Sera is already pretty similar to our planet, that may be a bit boring.
Either way, Fergusson was surprised to see the direction that The Coalition took with Gears of War and is unsure if his vision for Gears 6 will ever happen. He also told the podcast that the studio never decided on what the canonical ending would be, as players can choose to kill either JD or Del. He stated that the data they had showed players were evenly split, probably making it even more difficult to canonize one specific choice. Other developers weren’t fond of the idea of giving players a choice like this as Gears of War has always had one timeline and Gears 6 would’ve had to reckon with the idea of more than one based on who lived or died..
Ultimately, Gears 6 would be a welcome change of pace for the series. Whether or not it would be enjoyed by fans is completely up in the air, but the idea of shaking things up and taking players to a whole new planet is a compelling idea. The recent incomplete trilogy was doing some really interesting things with the franchise and seemed to be mostly embraced by fans and critics alike. As of right now, it seems like Gears of War: E-Day is probably still a few years out as we haven’t seen any gameplay and details on gameplay and other specifics haven’t been revealed. If that’s the case, we likely won’t get Gears 6 until the next Xbox generation and that’s assuming The Coalition actually makes it as its next game rather than finding a way to do a sequel to E-Day.
