What you need to know
- Gears of War is an Xbox-exclusive franchise owned by Microsoft.
- It used to be owned by Epic Games, who run the popular battle royale shooter Fortnite.
- For Fortnite's Chapter 3 launch, a couple of Gears of War skins seem to be making their way across.
Gears of War is a long-running franchise exclusive to Microsoft platforms, and sits alongside Halo and Forza as one of Xbox's most iconic franchises. Many youngsters running around in Fortnite more than likely have no idea what Gears of War is, let alone the fact that two of the franchise's central protagonists, Marcus Fenix and Kait Diaz, are climbing aboard the battle bus.
Thanks to Fortnite's Polish social media arm jumping the gun a bit, the full trailer for Fortnite's Chapter 3, Season 1 Battle Pass has leaked, showcasing a range of hot media tie-ins. Alongside Gears of War, a range of Spider-man skins are also joining the game, alongside various others.
Fortnite is switching to Unreal Engine 5 with its move to Chapter 3, bringing with it a range of new combat features such as improved physics and destruction, web-slinging (no doubt to support the Spider-man tie in), environmental effects, and sliding.
Fortnite's Chapter 3 will formally kick off on December 7, 2021, putting it up against the formal launch of Halo Infinite, which drops on December 8. Halo Infinite also has sliding, but it has no Gears of War skins (yet).
A long time ago in a video game industry far, far away, Epic Games was once the owner and creator of the much-loved Gears of War franchise. Although, they sold it on to Microsoft to continue the franchise forward.
A new studio was set up in Vancouver, dubbed The Coalition, to shepherd the Gears of War franchise. Since then, the team has put out three Gears of War titles, dubbed Gears of War 4, Gears 5, and Gears Tactics. The Coalition is known to be currently working on two separate projects, one of which is undoubtedly Gears 6, but the other project is shrouded in mystery for the time being.
Gears 6 has yet to break cover, or even become formally announced. Could we see it at The Game Awards this week? Likely not, but who knows? The timing of this Gears tie-in could be viewed as a tad suspicious ...
