Gears of War 4 Could Have Been First Person Before Microsoft’s IP Acquisition

The Gears of War IP has come under plenty of criticism in recent years for its perceived unwillingness to change things up from the cover-based third person shooter formula it established with its first game back in 2006, but as it turns out, if things had gone a little differently, the series may have ended up taking a very different direction after its original trilogy.

Cliff Blezsinski, who led the development of the original Gears of War trilogy at Epic Games, recently appeared on the XboxEra podcast, and while speaking about the developer’s original plans for Gears of War 4, revealed that he was considering making it a first person shooter, changing up the series’ established formula significantly.

“Yeah, I can tell you I wanted to actually consider going to first-person with it,” he said (via VGC). “Can you imagine chainsawing a Locust in first-person?” He did not elaborate further, but series fans would surely be keen to know more about what those plans would have entailed.

This was, of course, before Microsoft ended up acquiring the IP from Epic Games and handing the reins to then-newly established first party studio The Coalition.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for the franchise as things stand. Leaks have claimed that Gears 6 is going to be The Coalition’s next game, with the studio also seemingly hiring for multiple roles as it looks to work on the sequel. As per rumours, a remastered collection of previous Gears of War games is also in development.