In recent years, The Coalition has emerged as one of the best and most reliable developers within Xbox Game Studios, having since 2016 released Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Gears Tactics and also been involved in the violently beautiful graphics demo The Matrix Awakens. In addition, they have also updated their titles properly for each new console (Xbox One X and Xbox Series S/X) in a particularly impressive way.
However, they were founded as a Gears of War studio, so it was surprising when we learned a few years ago that they started developing a new game series. This of course split the fan base in two, with one loving the idea of seeing something new, while the other didn’t like the idea of waiting any longer than necessary for Gears 6. That makes this report equal parts bad and good news.
In recent Game Mess Morning’s show the usually reliable Jeff Grubb said that The Coalition has canceled two of its unannounced projects, in part due to Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios refocusing their resources after recent layoffs. The studio has instead put almost all of its focus on developing Gears 6.
This does not necessarily mean that you should expect to see the sixth Gears of War anytime soon, as development was at a very early stage before the decision. It will therefore take a few years to get the story and content to the quality that people want and expect. Add to that that The Coalition’s work is expected to be one of the main draws for Epic Games’ latest graphics engine and the performance of the Xbox Series X, so our guess is that it won’t launch until fall 2025 at the earliest. Late – but still earlier than originally planned.
