Gears of War dev says next entry will use Unreal Engine 5, denies it is working on Star Wars game

Forward-looking: The Coalition—the studio behind the Gears of Wars games since Microsoft bought the franchise from Epic Games in 2014—has announced it is winding down work on Gears 5 as it focuses resources on the next entry in the series, which will use Unreal Engine 5. The company has also denied recent rumors that it is working on a new Star Wars game.

The Coalition announced that moving to the new engine is a huge undertaking. As such, it “will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time.”

Gears of War 1 – 3, developed by Epic Games, all use Unreal Engine 3, while The Coalition-developed Gears of War 4, Gears 5, and Gears Tactics are powered by Unreal Engine 4.

“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 company writes.

More content for Gears 5 will be released, including Operations 7 and 8, each containing two drops featuring new characters, new maps, and special events. There will also be new store updates through the end of the year.

The Unreal Engine 5 is set to launch later in 2021. Based on the PS5 tech demo, we can expect Gears 6, or whatever it’s called, to look pretty spectacular.

Elsewhere, the Gears of War community manager TC Kilo refuted rumors that The Coalition was working on a new Star Wars game. “Just to clarify regarding the Star Wars thing,” they wrote on Reddit. “We are not working on any such title. We have nothing else to announce at this time.”