Gears 5 developers won't be announcing new games "for some time"
The Coalition are busy upgrading to a new engine
Gears 5 has been out for nearly a couple years now, but don't start thinking about Gears 6, or Gears anything, for a while. The Coalition still have plans to bring more maps and characters to Gears 5 in two more Operations, they say, but the studio is also focusing on transitioning to the newest Unreal Engine. That's going to take most of their attention, so we shouldn't be expecting to hear about new Gears games for a while, they've warned.
"Gears of War has always been at the front of Unreal Engine development," The Coalition say in a news post about the future of the Gears games. "We're excited to continue that tradition by developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years."
Over in our Gears 5 review, Matthew has a bit to say about how The Coalition reclaimed that role, and other good things to say besides.
"It seems a lifetime ago that Gears was heralded as the graphical benchmark," he said in 2019. "Remember Epic showing new Unreal updates with GoW tech demos of wibbling meat tech? Gears 5 rediscovers its wow after the conservative GoW4. Partly through art direction whisking us to places where the play of light can impress—glistening ice caves, buried rooms gradually exposed under windy assault—and with explosives and electric beams that fill them flashy particle effects."
I imagine that The Coalition want to maintain that reputation. So, as they say, that'll mean making sure they're on the cutting edge of Epic's latest Unreal tech. However, that change is a commitment. "Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time," they say.
I don't have any skin in the Gears game, but hey, not so bad to have a studio outright tell you that they're going to be quiet for a while. That won't stop folks from speculating, or from asking, of course. There's already one player comment on their Steam forums post asking what year Gears 6 is coming, which I wish I could believe is a joke.
In any case, I suppose you can't fault anyone for being curious. After Gears 5 impressed in 2019, strategy game Gears Tactics also wound up being one of RPS's favorite games of 2020.
Well then, I suppose it's worth letting The Coalition take their time working on whatever comes next in the Gearsverse. Just don't be expecting to hear about it this summer.