Gears of War 4 gets new maps, achievements with September Update

Laurent Giret

Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition has just announced what’s coming in the game’s September update, which will bring matchmaking improvements, new achievements and more. First of all, two new apps, Mercy and Harbor Haze are now available in the Developer Playlist for Season Pass Holders, and they’ll be available for everyone on September 12.

The team is also adding 20 new achievements (500G), which are mostly focused on your first 10 hours in the game. “For many of you, you’ll have these new achievements instantly awarded the day you turn on the game,” explained the team. More importantly, the matchmaking experience will soon be improved with the new “Quality of Service matchmaking system,” which will replace the previous Region Locked matchmaking. “We’ll match you on local data centers with players of similar connection quality more often, resulting in fairer and better quality matches every time you play,” explained the team.

This month, The Coalition will also kick off Ranked Season 2, in addition to a new special event for Versus and a Bonus Loot Drop event in the 25 wave Horde experience. You can watch the video below for a recap of everything that’s new with this content update.

It’s been almost a year since Gears of War 4 was released on Xbox One and Windows 10, and The Coalition plans to keep releasing content updates going forward. “We will continue to support Gears of War 4 with a wealth of new content, events and more throughout 2018,” explained the team. In addition to the upcoming Xbox One X Enhanced update, you can expect new achievements, more balancing improvements to Versus and Horde, new monthly and seasonal events and more.

If Gears of War 4 never enjoyed the same kind of buzz as Playerunknown’s Battleground or the upcoming Destiny 2, it’s still a first-party game that Microsoft can be very proud of. “You – our amazing fans – have played more than 10 BILLION minutes of Gears of War 4,” revealed The Coalition today, which is definitely impressive for a Xbox One/Windows 10 exclusive game.