'Gears of War 4' Release Date, News: Release of New Xbox One Shooting Game Likely in June 2015
"Gears of War 4," the much awaited next installment of the third-person shooting game Gears of War series, still has no official release date. However, speculations are rife that the game will be announced during the E3 2015 in June.
E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual trade show for the video game industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association. This year, the event will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, C.A. from June 16 to 18.
The Gears of War series is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game franchise developed by Epic Games and now owned by Microsoft Studios. The series focuses on the conflict between humanity, the subterranean reptilian hominids known as the Locust Horde, and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent. The franchise consists of four third-person shooter video games, which have also been supplemented by a comic book series and five novels.
According to Microsoft, the Gears of War series has sold over 22 million units and earned over $1 billion in revenue as of January 2014. "Gears of War 1" was released in 2006, "Gears of War 2" followed in 2008, and "Gears of War 3" in 2011. "Gears of War: Judgment" was released in 2012.
On January 2014, Microsoft announced its purchase of the rights of the franchise from Epic Games and that a new game will be developed by Black Tusk Studios for Xbox One. Rod Fergusson, former director of production at Epic Games on the Gears of War franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise.
Recently, Xbox head Phil Spencer hinted about the "massive progress" for "Gears of War 4," indicating that the release is imminent. As to whether there will be a "going back to the roots" of the game, Spencer also addressed that speculation, noting that "Gears 2 did well, Gears 3 did well. So I thought the franchise continued to grow. But we've talked about getting back to something ... I think the story and the setting and what they're going through ... in a Gears of War, the name of the game, it really meant something to what that game was about. We've got to get back to that," he said.