Gears 5 developer The Coalition has announced today that it has begun the process of transitioning development to Unreal Engine 5, which is set to be used for "multiple new projects in the coming years."
In a message on the official Gears website, the team explained that they're "excited to start shifting our resources to next-gen development," thanking "all the fans out there who have been on this journey with us" so far.
"As we look to future games, we’re excited to start shifting our resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5. Gears of War has always been at the front of Unreal Engine development – as a breakout 720p title for Xbox 360 through last year’s 120FPS multiplayer update for Xbox Series X|S – and we’re excited to continue that tradition by developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years."
There are no details on those new projects as of yet, and the team made sure to mention that they "will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time," as shifting to a new engine is a sizeable undertaking.
Despite this news, Gears 5 will continue to receive new operations through Operations 7 and 8, along with store updates complete with "exciting new content" and featured playlists through the end of the year.
"Thanks again to all of our fans.
We’re eager to get to work and show you what we’re working on when the time is right."
What are your thoughts on this news? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source gears5.com]
Comments 11
Man, now I really can't wait for Gears 6.
Gears 5 looked, played, and sounded amazing - so Gears 6 will hopefully blow minds with everything UE5 can do!
EDIT: The transition to UE5 might not be all that bad either (from the UE 5 page):
"Unreal Engine 4.25 already supports next-generation console platforms from Sony and Microsoft, and Epic is working closely with console manufacturers and dozens of game developers and publishers using Unreal Engine 4 to build next-gen games.
Unreal Engine 5 will be available in preview in early 2021, supporting next-generation consoles, current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
We’re designing for forward compatibility, so you can get started with next-gen development now in UE4 and move your projects to UE5 when ready."
While, I know the transition won't be seamless (nothing ever is when it comes to shifting to major versions in software development), it could mean that current projects won't see any major delays either.
More money for epic
Gears 6 on Unreal Engine 5 is going to be a epic masterpiece.
@Would_you_kindly
100% right. But what you going to do . There is like 4 public engines you can use and really only unreal is the one with a mature suite of tools that can handle large games.
Or build your own which is insanely expensive and can cause issues Ala what is happening with halo right now.
Great news an unreal 5 game for new generation Gears, perfect.
@Terrin true just a shame epic owns it
This makes it sound like Gears 6 is still a loooooooooong way off...
@Terrin
Xbox game studios has more then enough internal engines they could use, it would just take time to learn these engines
@Murray
Yes and no. If the engine isn't designed for what you plan to do it can make huge delays. Especially if tools are not in place for it.
A great example of this was frostbite where ea stated all studios had to use it going forward.
Outside of battlefield the engine wasn't designed for it and caused huge issues with mass effect Andromeda and caused a ton of issues in the sports teams.
There is very few universal engine like unreal and for some smaller projects unity.
Also the teams using the internal engines are taking alot longer.
Forza with just updating the enginre had gone from bi annually to 3+ years. Fable using the Forza engine is looking like a 5+ year project .
Halo using the new slipspace engine 6+ years.
Outside of them most are using unreal
The Coalition's skill with Unreal Engine is unmatched. I'm very excited to see what they can accomplish with this new engine upgrade. But yeah, Epic... 🤢
Probably an unpopular opinion, but this is such a talented studio, I wish they would work on something new. Gears is very tired to me.
I used to love the series. GoW1 literally made me buy an Xbox 360 the next day, 2 was a step up in every area, and 3 while more of the same was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
Since then Judgement was OK at best, 4 was visually spectacular but both gameplay and story were lacking, 5 was much better but just not invested in the characters or gameplay anymore. To be clear none are bad, they're all good games, but it feels pretty stale right now.
I'd LOVE to see what The Coalition could do on a new IP.
Tap here to load 11 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...