According to series creator, Cliff Bleszinski, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wanted the Gears IP to lean towards horror based themes.
Speaking as a guest participant during the latest episode of The XboxEra Podcast, Cliff Bleszinski mentioned that Phil Spencer had wanted the Gears IP to lean more towards horror based themes. According to him, this was the Microsoft Gaming CEO’s main note when Microsoft acquired the Gears franchise from Epic Games.
Bleszinski said that when Spencer had discussed the future of the Gears franchise with producer Rod Ferguson, he had expressed interest in taking it back to the “horror stuff”. He added that the original Gears of War was heavily inspired by Resident Evil 4, and this included certain horror elements.
He gave his opinion on the Dead Space franchise, saying that the series lost its focus by leaving its horror elements behind and going heavy on the “Michael Bay-inspired” action. He added that the Dead Space remake brought the focus back to horror themes, and fans were instantly back on-board.
In related news, it was previously rumored that Gears 6 will be the next project from The Coalition, following the cancellation of other games in development at the studio. Speaking during the latest episode of GiantBomb’s Game Mess Mornings, Jeff Grubb claimed that Gears 4 and 5 developer, The Coalition, has canceled its smaller non-Gears project along with another project, and that its next game will be Gears 6.
According to Grubb, The Coalition had been doing other things alongside the smaller project, including its support work for Halo Infinite and the development of The Matrix Unreal Engine 5 demo with Epic. However, he claimed that the smaller project as well as another project have been canceled by the studio. He said that this was also reflected by the layoffs that happened at Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios, including The Coalition.
