After the announcement of Gears of War: E-Day during the Xbox Games Showcase. some fans expressed concern that Microsoft and Gears developer The Coalition were walking away from the story set out in Gears 4 and the most recent game in the series, Gears 5.
Not so, according to Microsoft. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft touched on the future of Gears, insisting “this isn’t the end of other ongoing stories in the Gears series.”
“The team is content with the stories told in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is by no means 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 something of a cliffhanger, with Kait telling Marcus Fenix she’s off to hunt down Queen Reyna. Beforehand, the player, aka Kait, decides to save either JD Fenix or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the other.
Gears of War: E-Day, however, is set 14 years before the events of Gears of War 1, and tells the story of Emergence Day (the day the Locust burst out from under 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, rather than the perhaps expected Gears 6. “We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that were told,” Fawcette said. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, and this one just felt too good to miss.”
In a follow-up interview with IGN, Searcy expanded on the decision. “For us, there is a story here for our studio of how we found our way to E-Day that was about reflection,” Searcy explained. “And part of it is just the energy that rolls up about, this was the story we wanted to tell at this time. So it wasn't really about picking between these things, it was just a snowball of the stuff that was on the table and this is the one we wanted to do right now.
“We love those characters. It's really nice to have a franchise where we can tell stories in different places. For us, this is just the one we wanted to work on 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 at IGN Live. Spencer said doing a prequel instead of Gears 6 is “a nice opportunity for that team to establish their Gears.”
“Following on Gears 5 just because of the numerical thing, I think it would just… this was an opportunity for them to take it back to an origin story that has a lot of real depth to it in terms of Emergence Day and tell that story through The Coalition as it is today,” Spencer said. “I thought, what a great opportunity. I was excited.”
The question, of course, is with Gears of War: E-Day in active development at The Coalition, it may be some time before Microsoft continues the overarching Gears storyline with a potential Gears 6. Some fans have suggested another team be handed the responsibility of continuing the story in partnership with The Coalition, but Microsoft has yet to indicate a willingness to do so.
Gears of War: E-Day is currently without a release window. For more of what Microsoft has up its sleeve, check out everything announced at 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.
