Rumors Due to layoffs at Microsoft studio The Coalition has
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Rumors: Due to layoffs at Microsoft, studio The Coalition has canceled two projects, but Gears of War will only benefit from this

Giant Bomb journalist Jeff Grubb during the final broadcast of the Game Mess Mornings series divided unconfirmed information about the state of affairs at Canadian studio The Coalition, responsible for the Gears of War series.

    Image Source: Steam

Gears 5. Image Source: Steam

According to Grubb, The Coalition canceled two unannounced projects, one of which was not a big-budget project and was described in the level designer’s profile as being made under a new license. The journalist justified the decision with mass layoffs at Microsoft, which also affected internal Xbox studios.

In recent years, The Coalition has also been involved in the creation of side projects – Halo Infinite (343 Industries) and The Matrix Awakens Tech Demo (Epic Games), but now all the team’s efforts are reportedly focused on the development of Gears 6: “Most likely, the studio started full-scale production of Gears 6 last year. Either way, it’s definitely their next game.”

In January on the XboxEra Podcast, insider Nick Baker explained, that the Gears Ultimate Collection remaster collection for PC, Xbox Series X and S is also in development, and also showed the logos of the collection and Gears 6, noting that he does not vouch for their authenticity. Coming Soon Xbox Marketing Director Guy Welch Unspecified called news “fake”. One way or another, Baker mentioned Microsoft’s intention to re-release the franchise games in the vein of Halo: The Master Chief Collection last May.

    Image source: twitter.com/guywelch2000

Image source: twitter.com/guywelch2000

The developers of The Coalition did not talk about plans for Gears 6, but the tech demo The Cavern on Unreal Engine 5, which was shown in April 2022, was perceived by users as a hint for the next part. In July of the same year, a mention of a new game discovered for a senior mission designer. About the transition to a new generation of the Studio engine announced in May 2021.

In addition to games, an animated series and a feature film based on Netflix’s Gears of War are in the pipeline.

The last major installment in the series so far, Gears 5 debuted on PC and Xbox One in September 2019, arriving to coincide with the launch of the Xbox Series X and S consoles. In April 2020, Gears Tactics, a turn-based tactics developed by Splash Damage in collaboration with The Coalition, was released on PC. Both were rated quite highly (Metacritic – 82-84 and 80-82 out of 100 points). From 3DNews, the first received 9 and the second 7.5 out of 10 points.

On the same show, Grubb spoke about the discontinued Titanfall Legends and the in-development Marvel’s Wolverine, and on the Xbox Two podcast he explained that Starfield are planning Release in June and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II by the end of this year.