Back To The Front Lines

Gears of War has been on a strange journey over the past seven years. 2019 saw the release of Gears Pop, a Clash Royale-inspired mobile game featuring Funko Pop Gears of War characters and the mainline canon entry, Gears 5 (drop the “of War” – it’s cleaner). In 2020, spin-off Gears Tactics was released to positive reception, and it seemed the series was on track for consistent new games and worthwhile spin-offs. In fact, Gears 5 felt like the continuation of a new trilogy for the series. Marcus Fenix was still hanging around, but he was more of a supportive teacher than a frontline fighter. Gears 5 ended with the promise that the Human/Locust antagonist, Reyna, would return. But that was seven years ago, and she’s nowhere to be seen.

Last year, Gears of War: Reloaded brought the original game outside of the Xbox ecosystem to PlayStation 5. At the time, it felt like a continuation of Xbox’s efforts to spread its games across all platforms, but that has changed as Xbox leadership shifted its plans in destructive and unpredictable directions. Alongside the chaos of laying off thousands of Xbox employees, Gears of War: E-Day seemed like it was going to be a multiplatform game, until Microsoft insisted it wasn’t, despite since-removed assets appearing online showcasing PlayStation logos. It is now a proper Xbox (and PC) exclusive – potentially a starting line for more to come.