In spite of its incredible multiplayer popularity, Gears of War multiplayer has only ever been adequate at best. Fun, yes, but never particularly well designed or well balanced. That may all be about to change with the upcoming Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the remaster of the original game in the franchise, that hit over ten years ago- Polygon reports that The Coalition’s Rod Ferguson revealed plans in a behind closed doors session to lay down the foundations for the future of Gears gameplay.
And those foundations include optimizing resolution and framerate, minimizing controller lag, and spectator feature for multiplayer matches, a de facto requirement for proper “casting” — i.e., for commentators to direct view of the action and make play-by-play analysis of matches in a live capacity, and support for LAN multiplayer- all of which makes it pretty clear what The Coalition is gunning for here. They may be trying to make Gears of War a mainstay at future eSports events.
Of course, Microsoft as a publisher has a history with gearing their first party franchises towards the eSports crowds- 343 has previously done this with Halo. And while Halo has lost its core fanbase thanks to all of the changes that ensued, one can hope that maybe Gears will do better.
We will find out. Stay tuned to GamingBolt.