Gears 5 developer The Coalition announced today that it was moving to next-gen game development using Epic Games’ new Unreal Engine 5. The talented developers at Microsoft’s internal studio will continue to support Gears 5 (which uses Unreal Engine 4) with new content updates in the coming months, but The Coalition will now focus on “multiple new projects” using Unreal Engine 5.
“As we look to future games, we’re excited to start shifting our resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5. Gears of War has always been at the front of Unreal Engine development – as a breakout 720p title for Xbox 360 through last year’s 120FPS multiplayer update for Xbox Series X|S – and we’re excited to continue that tradition by developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years,” the game studio said today.
The Coalition isn’t the only Microsoft studio to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, but it’s certainly one of the best. Back in 2019, Gears 5 was one of the rare AAA games to run at 4K/60FPS on the Xbox One X, and the Xbox Series X version of the game improved things even further with Ultra graphics settings and a 120FPS mode for multiplayer. Ninja Theory’s Hellblade II was the first-announced Microsoft game to use Unreal Engine 5, but it will be interesting to see what The Coalition can do with Epic Games’ new engine.
According to today’s update, though, it could be some time before The Coalition reveals Gears 6 and the other new games in its pipeline. “Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time,” the company said.
