In early 2014 it was announced that the rights to the Gears of War franchise has been released from Epic Games and sold onto Microsoft Game Studios to ensure that future entries in the hit third person shooter series remain on the Xbox platform. Rumours have swirled over the following months, and even as recently as GamesCom (thanks to a fan hacking Twitch) that surround the release date and any details pertaining to the upcoming game. With the game in the hands of Rod Ferguson (known for work on previous Gears games) and Black Tusk Studios; a new team that was yet to release its own game. With whatever it was they were working on put to the backburner (an issue we’ll discuss another time) the question we’re looking to answer in this article is: When will Gears of War 4 (or whatever it is to be called) be announced, and eventually released.
I’ll first deal with the initial announcement. With Black Tusk’s resources only being shifted to Gears of War in January 2014 when the acquisition was finalised we know that the team had to drop everything they were doing and begin work on Gears… from scratch – this means that the final release is still quite a way off, but it doesn’t mean Microsoft can’t start teasing the project early. As many titles have proven in the past, a simple CG trailer that shows no gameplay can easily satiate the appetite of fans, and keep them hanging until further word, but will Microsoft want to start heavy promotions considering that 2015 marks the year of Halo 5: Guardians? Not likely – what I believe the likely scenario will be is that at E3 2015, during a conference with its time heavily directed at Halo, the conference will close with a small (no more than a minute) long teaser that whets the mouths of fans everywhere, that doesn’t do enough to shift players attentions from the impending Halo 5 release. This E3 announcement will then be followed by a formal unveiling at VGX 2015 in December, an event that will likely come after the release of Halo 5.
What gamers then will be crossing their fingers for is a prompt release. Whether it is wise to release the game in late 2016 off the back of an approximately 2.5year production time is disputable, but Microsoft do not have a massive stable of blockbuster exclusive franchises so extra pressure may be heaped on Black Tusk to get the game out in time. I would personally like to see Gears 4 hit in 2017 to ensure the game releases to the standard that the series has set to date, but I believe Microsoft may throw some weight around, a few extra staff over to Black Tusk and we’ll see Gears 4 landing in time for Christmas – I call October.
Along with Halo, the Gears of War franchise is the biggest franchise Xbox has so getting it right is critically important. Don’t get too ahead of yourselves, you’re probably not going to see anything for a while, but when Gears 4 finally hits look out – it could be huge. For now though we wait, and let Rod do his work.
Source: amhnetwork.com
