Those wanting some insight into what The Coalition, the Microsoft Games Studio team responsible for modern Gears of War, could be working on next now have an event to look forward to. The schedule for GDC 2021, which runs between July 19 and 23, has revealed a planned event from The Coalition. During the event, titled "Unlocking Artist Potential," two of The Coalition's directors will share a brand new Unreal Engine 5 technical demo named Alpha Point.
Alpha Point, according to the GDC 2021 website's description of The Coalition's panel, is a technical demo built on Xbox Series X to internally evaluate UE5. To be clear, it's all but certain to be unrelated to The Coalition's next project. However, it could provide a look into some of the technology and visuals that The Coalition could be striving to achieve with its next project. Further, it'll provide a look into what one of Xbox's most talented teams is truly able to do with the Xbox Series X's hardware.
To be more specific, The Coalition says that it's going to focus on the "inner workings" of UE5's new visual systems, assumedly compared to UE4. Systems that will be featured in the Alpha Point Demo include Nanite, UE5's new virtualized geometry system; Lumen, UE5's global illumination and reflections system; Megascans, a library of photorealistic content; and MetaHumans, a tool for creating fully rigged humans in high fidelity.
Suffice to say, The Coalition will be showcasing what it's been able to do with UE5's most cutting-edge additions. This isn't a small team at The Coalition doing a presentation, either. It'll be hosted by The Coalition's studio technical art director, Colin Penty, and studio technical director, Kate Rayner. There's clearly been a significant investment made into exploring the potential of Unreal Engine 5 at The Coalition and the team being willing to share some of its experience is fortuitous.
The Coalition's most recent projects were the AAA shooter Gears 5, originally released on both PC and Xbox One, as well as the spin-off Gears Tactics game, originally released on PC but now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Reports since have hinted that The Coalition's working with 343 Industries to get Halo Infinite out the door, but that it also has both Gears 6 and a third project -- potentially a new IP -- in the works.
The Coalition's "Unlocking Artist Potential" GDC 2021 event will be on July 20 and will run from 1:20 to 2:20. Note that this is an official GDC 2021 event and so is unlikely to be broadcast to the public. That means Alpha Point may only be watchable for GDC 2021 pass owners, which start at around $249. Hopefully, The Coalition will choose to share the event and the Alpha Point demo with the public through one means or another.