Jez Corden has a huge follow up on rumors about a Gears of War Collection.
We started reporting on a potential Gears of War Collection when datamining apparently found that the game was in Sony’s systems. However, the data in Sony’s systems also suggested that the collection would not have PvP, but only online co-op. Jez initially corroborated this rumor, saying that he also heard that the collection had no PvP.
But afterwards, he said that he would look into these rumors further. Aside from vetting these claims, he was also asked to verify about Horde Mode. We assume that he verified this rumor with his sources, and that possibly means even contacting Microsoft if they were willing to go on the record.
A few days later, this is what Jez has to say now:
“Been unable to confirm or debunk this so far, aside from the suggestion that there’s some misinformation in the current rumors.
I do think it would be an odd thing for any prospective “Gears Collection” to ship without PvP…
I’d say don’t worry too much about the most recent rumours for now, and wait for something more concrete, but we’ll see. Will keep digging.”
For what it’s worth, we don’t know if Jez is only checking with his sources, or actually looking for a response from Microsoft. It’s also unclear if he talked with people who spread the rumors to verify their claims directly.
As we argued, if this rumor were true, it would be the first time that Microsoft brought games over to PlayStation 5 that didn’t have features that were available to Xbox gamers. Hypothetically, these new remasters would not have PvP on all platforms. But of course, Xbox gamers have their fill of the Gears of War Ultimate Edition, the 2015 remaster of the original game on Xbox One. That game also entitled owners to get the Xbox 360 versions of the Gears of War trilogy on the Xbox 360, using backwards compatibility.
All these games still have fully functional online, including both PvP and co-op. While we speculated such choices may have come about because of budget or technical issues, it would start the unusual precedent that PlayStation 5 gamers would get less. Maybe Xbox fanboys don’t care about that, but Phil Spencer was very clear that he would not do something like that, after deciding that Sony doing that sort of thing was scummy behavior.
Of course, if Microsoft couldn’t bring such a Gears of War Collection with everything fans expect, it would also be more logical if they kept on working to get all of it in order. In 2025, Microsoft has an embarrassment of riches in games they can publish, so of course it makes sense if they delayed this to get it right too. We’ll see if Jez gets the confirmation he’s looking for, or if Microsoft themselves make it official.
