Rumor: The Coalition cans unannounced titles to begin work on Gears 6

Don your best curb-stomping boots

A new report suggests that Xbox subsidiary The Coalition may have canned the production of two unannounced titles in order to begin work on the sixth mainline entry into the dystopian shooter series, Gears of War.

Speaking on the Game Mess Mornings show, Giant Bomb writer and frequent spoiler Jeff Grubb suggests that the studio had been working on multiple projects, including the aforementioned two new titles, additional support for Halo Infinite, while also helping Epic Games with its Unreal 5 tech demo The Matrix Awakens. Grubb suggests that the team may have been pulled from all of the above projects to start working on Gears 6 — a continuation of the popular and hugely successful Xbox series.

(Rumor) Jeff Grubb says The Coalition has canceled its smaller non-Gears project along with another project due to the laid-offs at Microsoft. The studio has fully moved on to Gears 6 over the last year or so.https://t.co/uXq7sxWY7r pic.twitter.com/bY4pE9e913

— Alan Feely (@IdleSlothVGT) February 2, 2023

“This was all reflected in the layoffs that happened at Microsoft, which did hit The Coalition a little bit. The studio is now going to move on fully to Gears 6. I say now, it has likely moved on to Gears 6 in full over the course of the last year, but definitely, that will be their next game.”

The most recent mainline entry in the Gears series, Gears 5, launched on PC and Xbox One in 2019, and follows the story of former rebel outlier Kait Diaz, as she attempts to stem the flow of the Horde hivemind and uncover the roots of her own connection to the subterranean species. The sequel was praised for its impactful and visceral action, as well as offering another intriguing and dramatic chapter to the ongoing Gears of War narrative.

While there has been no official word from The Coalition, it is common belief that the studio was expected to continue the Gears franchise at some point on Gen-9 hardware. Even if Grubb’s sources are correct, it is unlikely that we’ll be seeing Gears 6 rev its chainsaw bayonet anytime in the immediate future.