Highlights
- Cliff Bleszinski hints at the next Gears of War title, indicating his satisfaction with what he's heard from a writer on the project.
- The Coalition's rumored cancellation of two new IPs suggests a focus on Gears 6, which may not be ready until 2026.
- Despite Cliff Bleszinski's previous departure from the industry, he has expressed interest in consulting on Gears 6.
Cliff Bleszinski, creator of Xbox's popular third-person shooter franchise Gears of War, has made mention of the next title in the series rumored to be underway at The Coalition. It's been about four years since the release of Gears 5 in 2019 and close to three since its acclaimed Hivebusters DLC. Since then, Gears fans have been eagerly awaiting what's next for the franchise amid swirling rumors of The Coalition canceling two new IPs in favor of starting work on Gears 6.
After two decades with Epic Games working on the Unreal games and creating Gears of War, a series that would go on to become a flagship Xbox franchise selling over 41 million copies, Cliff Bleszinski left Epic in 2012, just over a year after the highly successful launch of Gears of War 3. Since then, he's gone on to build his own development studio named Boss Key Productions which unfortunately closed two years after the release of its first game, a multiplayer arena shooter named Lawbreakers.
Now, with rumors suggesting that The Coalition is moving forward with the next Gears title after reportedly canceling two new IPs, Cliff Bleszinski weighed in about rumors he's heard himself. On Twitter, the Gears of War creator expressed that a friend of his who was a writer on Gears 5 had privately reached out to him and assumedly shared some details on the franchise's future. Cliff left it at that but added a GIF of Leonardo DiCaprio's character from Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained saying "You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention."
With all this taken into account, it seems to indicate quite clearly that CliffyB likes what he heard from his writer friend. Recent rumors point toward Gears 6 not being ready until about 2026. If true, the game is still likely in preproduction or in very early production. Cliff Bleszinski left the video game industry with the closure of Boss Key Productions in 2018, but he's recently expressed interest in consulting on the next Gears game following the former Coalition lead Rod Fergusson's departure to Diablo at Blizzard. Perhaps Gears 6 will see the return of CliffyB to the franchise, but this has yet to be seen.
Regardless of whether CliffyB would return to lend his ideas to this next Gears of War title, it still seems like it may be a long way off. The game's narrative will have a lot of decisions to make regarding a particularly important choice players had to make toward the end of Gears 5. Nevertheless, the franchise's creator expressing satisfaction over what he's heard from a writer on the project is a good sign for fans that Gears 6 may be headed in the right direction.
Gears 6 is rumored to be in development.
Source: PCGamesN