Along with two other Gears of War games (Gears Pop! and Gears 5), Microsoft used its E3 conference today to announce Gears Tactics. The game is going to be a turn-based tactics game set in the Gears of War universe, and it will take place 12 years before the first Gears of War game.

Seeming to take several cues from the XCOM series, Gears Tactics is going to allow players to make their own squad and use them in an isometric battleground against Locust enemies. It is unlikely that many familiar characters will be playing key roles, considering the nature of a prequel that prides itself on squad customization.

Gears Tactics is going to be launching on Windows 10, joining Gears of War 4 in a growing collection of Gears of War games available on the PC. It is unclear as to whether or not Gears Tactics will make the jump onto the Xbox One at some point in its future.

The game seems to be part of a larger effort to branch the Gears series into different paths, and turn it into a more versatile franchise. Between the top-down tactics of this title and the drastically different tone of Gears Pop, it's very likely to see the Gears of War franchise be taken in several different directions - including the Battle Royale genre, as we reported on not too long ago.

There is currently no indication of what Gears Tactics' release window is going to be, or what its price point is going to be. It's likely that the game will be available on Xbox Game Pass on launch, following the trend of other Microsoft Studios titles that debuted with support for the service.

Gears Tactics currently has no release date.