When Xbox was established, they had an immediate uphill battle to climb, as both Nintendo and Sony had numerous IPs to bank on for new systems, while Microsoft was just starting out with theirs. However, when the 360 era came, a shockingly great new IP arrived, and it was recently revealed that the true origin story for that franchise would be coming soon. However, that left many wondering what would be the fate of Gears of War 6, which seemed like it was DOA after no announcements for several years. However, despite the prequel title coming, things are still moving forward with the franchise.
This was revealed in a piece on Xbox Wire, where the developers of the most recent games, The Coalition, stated that Gears of War 6 was indeed happening. The team revealed:
“Of course, this isn’t the end of other ongoing stories in the Gears series – the team is content with the stories told in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is by no means abandoning them, but the collective passion for such an iconic origin story was simply too great to ignore. The story of E-Day and the origins of Marcus and Dom are such powerful, pivotal events that The Coalition couldn’t wait to tell it.”
Another team member added:
“We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, which just felt too good to miss.”
On the one hand, this is an incredibly positive thing to have happen. After all, it highlights how the franchise not only isn’t dead, but there are two titles coming to it sooner rather than later. That’ll get many people talking and potentially keep many people playing the Xbox systems until the story of Marcus Fenix and the next generation are told in full.
However, one might point out that one of the reasons that they might be focusing on the prequel game first is because the original trilogy, which Epic Games made, has been praised as one of the greatest gaming trilogies ever. In contrast, while the two games that came from The Coalition were good, their sales and impact weren’t nearly as strong. The last title came out in 2019, and while it had a big launch on Xbox Game Pass, sales were said to be much lower in some parts of the world compared to the previous entry.
Only time will tell how this all plays out.
