Rumour: Gears 6 pushed forward as The Coalition cancels new IP

The studio's plan to make something new has apparently been scrapped, so it's going back to Gears of War.

The talented bunch over at The Coalition has only been working on Gears of War games the last decade. Quite understandable considering what it's called these days, which is why it was all the more surprising when we were told the studio had started development of a new IP a few years ago. This obviously split the fan-base in two, where one side loved the idea of seeing something new, while the other didn't like the idea of waiting longer than expected for Gears 6. That makes tonight's report a good news - bad news situation.

As part of today's Game Mess Mornings show, usually reliable Jeff Grubb said The Coalition has cancelled two of its unannounced projects, in part because of Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios refocusing their resources after the recent lay offs. The studio has instead put pretty much all of its focus on developing Gears 6.

That doesn't mean you should expect to see the sixth mainline Gears of War anytime soon, as the development was in the very early stages before this happened. Sure, The Coalition has already shown its skill with Unreal Engine 5 in The Matrix Awakens, but it'll take a few years to get the story and content to the quality people want and expect. Top that with fans expecting the studio to truly show what Epic Games' latest engine will be able to do on Xbox Series X, and my guess is it won't launch until fall 2025 at the earliest. Still, that's earlier than originally planned, so who's complaining?