Gears of War 4's story will set up the series for a new trilogy, similarly to what's been done with Halo. Developers from The Coalition, the new custodians of Gears of War, spoke in an interview with Game Informer about how they are continuing from Gears of War 3.
Chuck Osieja, creative director for Gears 4, said that they had to think "how do we setup a foundation for not just a trilogy, but for a much larger universe," and they apparently discussed giving the universe alternate planets.
Studio head Rod Fergusson said: "we wanted to stay on Sera because we wanted to have the opportunity revisit old places and use specific weapons, to have these touchstones to the past."
"We decided, 'Let's put enough time in and have a new generation of heroes'," Fergusson added. The protagonist of Gears 4 is JD Fenix, Marcus Fenix's son, and you begin the game not as a member of the COG army, but as a small squad operating independently, having gone AWOL.
Fergusson described Fenix's team as "a sort of splinter faction for people who didn't want to live under the oppression of the new COG." The story revolves around JD and his friends who are trying to find a member of the team's mother. It's set over the course of one night, and has similar themes to ones the first Gears of War had.
During the interview, Fergusson also said that he isn't looking to make the most amazing story in a game. "I'm not sitting here saying we're trying to be the be all and end all of storytelling. For us it's about creating compelling characters, world, and doing cool shit that we can go back to again and again."
Gears of War 4 is set to release in fall of 2016, and developers The Coalition have also teased that a PC version could be in the works.