We have a new rumor about Gears 6, that’s exciting news given that the game has not yet been officially announced yet.
In the latest episode of the XboxEra podcast, Nick “Shpeshal Nick” Baker shared these teasers about Gears 6:
“I had just heard a couple of things about Gears 6 awhile back. Nothing too major. Just heard that it is a little bit further along than some might think. I also heard the possibility that it could be a full open world, almost open world game.
You know how Gears 5 took a step in that open world direction, I think Gears 6 looks to be taking that to another level. So I don’t know, maybe I was wrong when I said that it’s just going to be an “open world game”, a la Ubisoft stuff. But I believe they are taking that next step that Gears 5 started.
What they started with Gears 5, they look to be taking that to another level with Gears 6.”
While the Gears of War franchise is one of the most venerable ones under the Xbox banner, it definitely lost momentum after the release of the first three games. Gears of War was originally conceived of by Epic Games, and most fans would agree that their initial run was made of all financially successful classics, and made the games significant enough to generate discourse on its cover shooter mechanics.
It would take five years between Gears of War 3 and Gears of War 4, so it also took that half decade to process the transition between developers Epic Games and The Coalition. This isn’t to say Gears of War 4 was bad, but that was a significant enough wait that gamers had somewhat forgotten about the franchise.
Gears of War 4 released in 2016 and Gears 5 in 2019, but now we are looking at four years since a new game had released. It may be unfair to The Coalition, because they also definitely suffered slower development through the pandemic, but as the stewards of the franchise, expectations are high that they deliver on more Gears games, in a way that they stay fresh in gamers’ minds.
Four to five years is a reasonable amount of time to work on a game, especially a sequel, so it would make sense if Gears 6 was ready by 2024 or 2025. It would also fit in with Phil Spencer’s claim that they have so many Xbox games in the pipeline that are ending development and will start releasing more high profile games more rapidly in the coming years of the Xbox Series X|S.
And it seems that The Coalition has found their groove in transitioning the Gears franchise towards being a more open world experience, if not a complete open world game. It is somewhat following a trend, but it also does give them a stronger position to tell more stories for their universe. For those who did play all the way through Gears 5, there is a lot to look forward to in the next chapter of the story of Kait Diaz and the Locust.
