Though Gears of War has been a third person, cover-based shooter since the first game released in 2006, it’s possible that it extends to other genres down the line.
At an Xbox Fanfest event in Australia (via GameSpot), Xbox head Phil Spencer and The Coalition creative director Chuck Osieja were asked about Gears of War possibly expanding into a different genre. Oseija stated that, “At Microsoft, we evaluate all opportunities for our franchises. So, if the right opportunity presents itself, we’ll explore that as something we can offer our fans.”
Of course, Spencer did tell Oseija to be careful about what he said. He then revealed that, “Definitely when we got the team together and talked about the future of Gears of War, I think there’s multiple ways that you can tell that story. Multiple gameplay genres. I think it’s a really big IP and it’s an IP that could exist in linear form, in books – we’ve seen that; in different gaming genres.
“You should understand that this franchise is important to use as a platform-holder as any franchise that we have and we wanted to be fully invested in where you want to go play the game.”
Gears of War 4 is the next big game in the series and releases on October 11th for Xbox One and Windows 10. Ultimate Edition owners will receive early access on October 7th though.