Gears of War 6 was about to be Gears of Space, or at least, that was the plan, according to former head of The Coalition, Rod Fergusson, before the franchise shifted its sights to the past with their upcoming title, Gears of War: E-Day.
Speaking to IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, the former director and current Diablo 4 lead revealed his plans to take the series in a new direction, up. “So what I wanted to do with Gears 6 is get [players] off Sera to encounter what that could mean to the rest of the galaxy – at least the rest of the solar system,” Fergusson explained.
For context, Sera, the planet that the Gears franchise is set in, was left in a pretty bad state following a resurgence of the Locust invasion during the events of the latest game in the series, Gears 5. During the game, protagonists Kait Diaz and Delmont Walker encounter glimpses of old UIR (Union of Independent Republics) rocket technology, left behind after the Pendulum Wars between the UIR and the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments). This same technology was meant to be the foundation of the space-faring story in Gears of War 6.
“We were sort of laying the seeds and the groundwork that in taking over that UIR territory, we’ve adopted their space program,” Fergusson said, “[but] it was old, Russian-era, sputnik-type tech, so we weren’t going to start Mass Effect-ing this, it was really about [getting players] to a new place.”
It was reported in June 2023 that Fergusson had written an outline for Gears of War 6 before leaving to join Activision Blizzard. He admits that the studio had probably dropped the script after his departure, but that he was fine with it.
The Coalition is currently putting Gears of War 6 in the backseat, instead prioritising the past with Gears of War: E-Day, which tells the origin story of a young Marcus Fenix during the events of Emergence Day, the arrival of the subterranean Locust horde that sparked the events of the franchise. Check out the game’s official announcement trailer below:
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Jake Su
