The gaming industry loves a remake. The last few years have proven that, with plenty of classics being remade or remastered for newer consoles and systems. According to a new rumor, the Gears of War franchise might be the next big franchise to go through that process.
According to XboxEra’s Nick Baker, Microsoft could be gearing up to re-release Gears games as part of a Master Chief Collection-style re-release. It’s a project that has been rumored in the past, though we don’t know a great deal about what such a game might involve.
"There was a rumour a while back where I mentioned that there is another Microsoft franchise that's getting the Master Chief Collection type treatment.” Baker said in the XboxEra podcast. “I am of the belief that is coming this year. Maybe that'll be their E3 announcement."
"Everyone's guessed it. I'm not going to say it, but everyone's guessed it.” Baker added. “What makes me laugh though, is that if you go from November 2021 to November 2022 and you look at Microsoft's big output, it could wind up being Halo, Gears, Forza."
Not having many details doesn’t stop us speculating, though. The Master Chief Collection first arrived on Xbox One in 2014, and included campaign and multiplayer modes for all four main Halo games.
That included the previously released anniversary remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, an exclusive remake of Halo 2, Halos 3 and Halo 4. Developer 343 Industries later added Halo 3 ODST in 2015 and Halo Reach in 2019, which coincided with a PC release of the game.
A Gears of War collection would presumably offer something similar. The only question is which titles will get the remake treatment, and which ones will simply be optimized to run on Xbox Series X.
All Gears games are playable on the current-generation Xbox consoles, thanks to backwards compatibility, but only Gears 5 has had the full Series X treatment. The enhanced version of the game launched alongside the console in November 2020, 14 months after the game’s initial release.
Gears of War 2 seems like the most likely candidate, since the Gears of War Twitter account teased fans with some rather detailed artwork from the game at the start of the year. It’s also never received the remake treatment before, and like Gears 3, is currently only available as an Xbox 360 title.
At the very least we can hope all four pre-Series X Gears games get some thorough optimization. 60 frames per second, 4K resolution, HDR, and all the things that make the Series X actually worth having. If the developers at The Coalition want to add some better textures to the game in the process, we won’t be complaining.
Including multiplayer modes from throughout the ages also wouldn’t go amiss — provided The Coalition can avoid the same pitfalls that plagued The Master Chief Collection at launch.
On the downside a Gears of War collection does highlight an ongoing problem with the Xbox Series X: A lack of original exclusives. Beyond Halo Infinite and the Forza Horizon series, Microsoft doesn’t really have any major exclusives right now — and that’s only been made worse by the recent delay of Bethesda’s Starfield.
Here’s hoping what we supposed to be Microsoft's E3 presentation, before the show was cancelled, has a bit more positive news to share. That’s set to take place on June 12 at 1p.m. Eastern and 6p.m. BST. Who knows, Maybe Microsoft will announce this new collection, and a few more positive details about Gears of War 6.
