Those eagerly anticipating a return to Sera got a big heap of exciting details about Gears of War 4 today. First and most important is a release date, with Gears of War 4 releasing exclusively for Xbox One on October 11th of this year! Unlike several of Microsoft’s recent exclusives, including Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Killer Instinct: Season Three and Quantum Break, Gears of War 4 is not getting a PC port for Windows 10, at least not yet. Whether or not it eventually gets one is no doubt up to fan demand, and how successful the game ends up being on Xbox One.
Revealed alongside the release date for Gears of War 4 was the game’s box art, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, albeit sans Xbox One border. You can check it out below:
Finally, Microsoft announced some details regarding the soon-launching Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta, which developer, The Coalition has previously stated is for legitimate stress-testing, and not simply marketing. If you’ve already played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One or PC via your own Xbox Live account, for any length of time, you will receive early access to the Gears of War 4 beta for April 18th. The beta will then open up to any and all Xbox Live Gold members starting on April 25th, and subsequently run until May 1st.
Neither Microsoft nor The Coalition has offered much information about the beta proper, though The Coalition has commented that the multiplayer began development at the same time as the story campaign, since the developer wished to better align the campaign and multiplayer quality in Gears of War 4, rather than have the campaign be given precedence over the multiplayer, as they felt the former Gears of War games did. The Coalition also confirmed that Gears of War 4 will feature split-screen campaign co-op and multiplayer functionality, in response to fan ire that split-screen gameplay was removed from last year’s biggest Xbox One shooter, Halo 5: Guardians.
Our review of The Coalition’s previous Gears of War offering, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, gave it a strong 81% overall score, declaring it a high-quality remake of the original Gears of War game, boasting improved multiplayer, gorgeous new visuals, and noticeably more play incentives in contrast to its original Xbox 360 incarnation. We did however lament that issues from the original Xbox 360 game, including bugs, lacklustre A.I. and a limit of two-player co-operative campaign gameplay, are still present in the remake, which also suffers from several glaring technical issues in its subsequent Windows 10 PC release.
Keep tracking Eggplante for all major news and updates on Gears of War.