Gears of War is one of the most iconic franchises of Xbox. The original trilogy is still talked about in gaming circles as being one of the best stories to come out of an entire console generation. While the series has had spin-offs and more sequels since then, with Gears of War E-Day, developer The Coalition is leaving behind the plotlines it has been developing for 10 years and venturing back into the brutal war that started it all.
The prequel storyline will be the first time fans will be seeing just how this war between the surface and the subterranean forces began on Emergence Day.
However, once the credits roll, Xbox and The Coalition are going to be facing a new question: where on Sera does the franchise go next? Will it bounce back to the future and finish off the descendant's plotlines? Perhaps it will stay in the prequel's timeline and spawn its own trilogy.
Marcus Fenix's story was all but over until The Coalition did its time skip with Gears 4, portraying his old and grizzled side as a supporting character this time. Gears 5 continued with new storylines but ended up circling back to the same old foes and threats Xbox fans have been facing for decades. Despite ending things on a massive cliffhanger, the studio has now pushed forward with a prequel instead.
We could even get a standalone Pendulum Wars shooter following Marcus and Carlos' journey we keep hearing about. There are plenty of novels to draw stories from after all. There is also the option of following other iconic characters and squads during the early days of the Locust War, offering more perspectives. There's plenty of nostalgia to go around these days, but the problem is, you can only coast on it for so long.
There is, of course, the other hard choice. Maybe E-Day should be the final send-off, letting this series about brotherhood and the horrors of war come to a rest on a high note. The Coalition has been making games in this series for over 10 years now, and perhaps it needs a big side venture like how Playground Games went from Forza Horizon racing games to a sprawling RPG with Fable.
Unfortunately, this decision comes at a time when Xbox is going through its massive "Reset," endeavor, which involves cutting thousands of jobs, spinning off studios, and somehow prioritizing its biggest IPs instead of risky ventures. After E-Day’s launch, it's anyone's guess as to whether Gears of War will be focused on again or even survive the cuts as the company goes through all the chaos.
