After a lengthy hiatus, Gears of War returned this week to Xbox Series X|S and PC with a new adventure set during the cataclysmic events of Emergence Day. For fans of the series, it has been a long wait, as the previous entry in the series, Gears 5, was released all the way back in 2019. Will there be another seven-year stretch between new Gears games? Gears of War: E-Day developer The Coalition doesn’t think so, as the new game lays the groundwork for a quicker turnaround for new potential chapters in the IP.
Speaking to the BBC, Coalition studio head Mike Crump said that E-Day provides a “great foundation” for future games, and he claimed that “the next game will not take nearly as long” to make. “What I say to myself, what I say to the team, is we just we need to focus on the things that we can control. For us that’s about shipping a great game that people are going to love and I feel like, as a team, we’ve done that,” Crump added in response to questions about the safety of the studio and its institutional knowledge during a period of mass layoffs at Xbox. “We’ve got a great team here. And the leadership team in particular has worked together for upwards of 20 years. So there’s definitely a continuity of knowledge and experience.”
So far, The Coalition appears to have been spared the brunt of “Xbox reset” layoffs, but fears remain that the axe might swing their way now that Gears of War: E-Day has launched.
Recent changes at Xbox have seen several studios consolidated under Bethesda and Activision, and even Xbox’s high-profile Halo series has not been spared. After being under the remit of Halo Studios for several years, a new team at Activision is now developing the next Halo game, rumored to be a new division within Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games.
The future of the Gears of War series likely rests with its commercial performance, but as an Xbox exclusive, there’s only so much room for sales before you factor in its availability as a day-one Xbox Game Pass release and its launch during a crowded period on the gaming calendar. Crump sees things differently, believing the true measure of E-Day’s success will be its ability to move the needle for Xbox and show what the gaming brand is capable of as it enters a new era, not just sales numbers.
“We measure things like, are we showcasing the platform? Are we pushing the hardware to its limits? Are we showcasing what the Xbox is capable of? Our goal basically is to be the best-looking game on the Xbox and really show the industry what’s possible with our hardware,” Crump said.