Gears of War studio has switched over to Unreal Engine 5 for next-gen development

Gears of War studio The Coalition has announced that it’s making its games in Unreal Engine 5.

According to a recent blog post, The Coalition has started “shifting [its] resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5” and that it will be “developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years.”

The first Gears of War was developed by Epic Games, which created the Unreal Engine, and the series has “always been at the front of Unreal Engine development,” The Coalition states, and it’s only natural for the series to continue that tradition with the adoption of Unreal Engine 5.

So what does this mean for the future of the Gears franchise?

Well, the most obvious takeaway is that the next Gears game will look amazing. Almost a year ago to the day, Epic released a real-time demo of Unreal Engine 5 running on the PlayStation 5, and the results were stunning. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to say that The Coalition, which is intimately familiar with Unreal Engine, can produce similar results in the Gears of War universe.

We can also assume that the next Gears game will be exclusive to Xbox Series consoles and PC, considering The Coalition plainly states that it’s shifting to next-gen development in its announcement. That means that, by the time the next Gears game releases, Xbox will probably have phased out the One family of consoles entirely.

That leads to the next point, which is that the next Gears game is probably still years away. VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb previously stated that the next Gears game won’t show up at this year’s E3 because the folks at The Coalition “just have too much going on.” One of the things that it has going on is helping fellow Xbox Games Studio 343 Industries get Halo Infinite out the door, but Grubb also stated that The Coalition is working on its own new IP.

Then there’s the adjustment period to consider. Another first-party Xbox title, Hellblade II, was moved out of the Series X and S launch window after developer Ninja Theory announced that it was also shifting to Unreal Engine 5, so considering the tech is so new, The Coalition is probably going to take some time on the next Gears title.

Unreal Engine 5 isn’t officially out yet, but several developers have already confirmed that they are using it to make their games. Obviously, Fortnite is confirmed to be getting an Unreal Engine 5 upgrade in the future, which is no surprise considering it’s an Epic title. But, more interestingly, Payday 3 has switched from Diesel to Unreal, and it’s supposed to be a next-gen title, so it’s possible that Starbreeze has their hands on UE5 as well.