Gears of War is one of Xbox's premiere franchises - it has been since the first game arrived as an Xbox exclusive in the fall of 2006. Epic Games was at the helm back then — as it was for the whole original trilogy — but, how do you feel about the direction Xbox has taken since?
If you remember, Microsoft picked up the important IP 10 years ago this month - the team announced its acquisition in January 2014. At the time it was unclear where Epic was heading next after the ill-fated Gears of War: Judgment, so we were pretty happy to know the series had a future under Xbox.
Since then though, we've had mixed feelings about Gears to be honest. There's definitely more positive than negative in terms of where Gears has gone in recent years, but we do feel like the series has plodded along a bit since The Coalition became the main developer. Gears 5 was a blast, but in general the games haven't quite lived up to what Epic created for Xbox 360 - at least not yet.
Gears of War 4 was a safe jumping off point, but its story was a letdown and its multiplayer borrowed a little too much from the past for our liking, and then yeah - while we enjoyed Gears 5 it still feels like it's missing a little something compared to the older games.
There's also the way in which Microsoft has handled the IP from a PR perspective. Don't get us wrong, it's always an event when a new Gears game drops, but is it just us that feels like Xbox undersells Gears a little bit these days? We still think it's one of the team's biggest franchises and we hope they're putting all they can into its future.
Speaking of which, things have gone very quiet on 'Gears 6' recently. After hearing rumours of full development starting in 2022, news on the sequel has been pretty dead since. We don't mind that, we can definitely wait - we just hope that Xbox is going to go all-in on Gears 6 behind the scenes. The franchise deserves it!
With all that said, how do you feel about the last decade of Gears under Xbox ownership? Are you happy with where things have gone, or have you been left wanting more from the franchise since Xbox bought it?