Following the announcement of Gears of War: E-Day during the Xbox Games Showcase. Some fans were concerned that Microsoft and Gears developer The Coalition were walking away from the story of Gears 4 and the most recent game in the series, Gears 5.
According to Microsoft, that is not the case. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft addressed the future of Gears and emphasized “this is not the end of other ongoing stories in the Gears series.”
“The team is pleased with the stories told in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is certainly not abandoning them, but the collective passion for such an iconic origin story was simply too great to ignore,” Microsoft said. “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.”
Warning: Spoilers for Gears 5 follow.
2019’s Gears 5 ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, with Kait telling Marcus Fenix that she’s going to hunt down Queen Reyna. Beforehand, the player, also known as Kait, decides to save either JD Fenix or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the other.
However, Gears of War: E-Day is set 14 years before the events of Gears of War 1 and tells the story of Emergence Day (the day the Locust erupted from beneath the Earth to attack Sera).
In the Xbox Wire post, The Coalition creative director Matt Searcy and brand director Nicole Fawcette discussed the decision to make a prequel next, instead of the perhaps expected Gears 6. “We’re super proud of Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that was told,” Fawcette said. “We are not deviating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment we had the chance to write our next step, and it just felt too good to miss.
In a follow-up interview with IGN, Searcy elaborated on the decision. “For us, there’s a story here for our studio about how we found our way to E-Day, which was about reflection,” Searcy explained. “And part of that is just the energy rolling around, this was the story we wanted to tell at this moment. So it wasn’t really about choosing between these things, it was just a snowball of the things that were on the table and this is the one we wanted to do next.
“We love those characters. It’s really fun to have a franchise where we can tell stories in different places. For us, this is exactly the one we wanted to work on right now, this is the one that felt right.
The decision to go with a prequel was a topic of discussion when IGN interviewed Xbox boss Phil Spencer during IGN Live. Spencer said that making a prequel instead of Gears 6 is “a great opportunity for that team to establish their Gears.”
“If I follow Gears 5 just for the numerical aspect, I think it’s just… this was an opportunity for them to bring it back to an origin story that has a lot of real depth in terms of Emergence Day and tell that story through The Coalition as it is now,” Spencer said. “I thought: what a great opportunity. I was excited.”
The question, of course, is whether, with Gears of War: E-Day in active development at The Coalition, it could be some time before Microsoft continues the overarching Gears storyline with a potential Gears 6. Some fans have suggested that another team would be responsible for continuing the story in partnership with The Coalition, but Microsoft has not yet indicated its willingness to do so.
Gears of War: E-Day currently has no release date. For more information on what Microsoft has in store, visit all announced during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.