It’s been roughly four years since the launch of Gears 5, but it seems the wait for the next instalment in the third person shooter franchise might not go on as long as some may have expected. Reports claimed earlier this year that The Coalition had cancelled two unannounced projects and instead shifted full focus to the development of Gears 6, and it’s now been claimed that the sequel may actually have made more progress behind the scenes than some may have expected.
That’s according to XboxEra co-founder Nick Baker, who said in a recent episode of the XboxEra Podcast that, based on what he’s heard from sources, Gears 6 is further along in development than what many may have thought it would be at this point.
Though Baker didn’t elaborate on what specifically that means and what that might indicate for the game’s target launch window, he did go on to give brief, potential details about the game itself, saying that Gears 6 is going to continue building on the semi-open world approach that The Coalition started experimenting with in Gears 5. According to Baker, though the sequel is unlikely to be a full-fledged open world title, it will be even more open-ended than the 2019 game.
Of course, until such time official announcements are made by The Coalition or Microsoft, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Gears franchise continuing to build on the gameplay changes it introduced with its last mainline instalment.