A new "Gears of War" game is in development at the Coalition, and from the large number of new job postings and the mouths of series veterans, it appears that production is proceeding at a rapid pace. On the one hand, it is not surprising that a Canadian studio founded to work on the "Gears" series is working on the "Gears" series. On the other hand, since 2019's (quite well-made) "Gears 5" (opens in new tab), we've heard little about the mainline productions, other than rumors (opens in new tab) that the series will get its own "Halo: MCC" treatment.

A series of job ads (opens in new tab) posted in the last month or two, the latest of which is for a senior gameplay designer, say the studio is looking for a role in Gears of War and to "build the future of the IP" (thanks, VGC (opens in new (opens in tab)). The fleshy belly of the locust meets the blade of this cold-blooded, bladed over-rev lancer, and Cole Train, behind him, says, "Woo!" over and over again while the rest of us yell, "Woo! Hey, maybe I can work there.

The positions being advertised seem to have nothing to do with remastering, the Coalition is looking for a Senior Mission Designer and a Multiplayer Specialist, and the job ad clearly states that the job is to create something new: "We are looking for a Senior Mission Designer to work with characters, camera, controls (3 C's) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems experience. You must have experience owning large scale features, refining them from initial concept to completion."

The hiring spree follows Microsoft's recent hiring spree (open in new tab), and while the headlines were primarily about the impact on Halo studio 343 Industries, the coalition was also affected. Further unconfirmed information (opens in new tab) indicates that during this period the Coalition cancelled two ongoing projects and shifted its focus entirely to a game likely to be called "Gears 6."

In addition to this, it appears that longtime Gears veteran Joshua Ortega has approved their return to the series. Ortega quoted and retweeted a thread (thanks, GR+ (opens in new tab)) about how much they've been involved with Gears (a huge amount since co-directing and writing Gears 2) and said, "Once again, I'll say this. This is the Gears dialogue I can get behind.

Meanwhile, Clifford Brzezinski is whining on Twitter about trying to get a consulting job (opens in new tab) for a new title. Hey, we all have to eat.

Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from creators Epic Games in 2014. Since then, it has released Gears of War 4 (2016) and Gears of War 5 (2019), remasters of the original games, and the surprisingly good strategy game Gears Tactics. Many other spin-off media are in the works, most notably a Gears movie and a Netflix "animated series for adults."

There is one piece of behind-the-scenes information about the next installment in the series: it will be produced in Unreal Engine 5 (opens in new tab). Get ready to see Marcus Fenix's nose pores like never before! But I'm a simple guy. I just want to play shotgun rolls where I can chainsaw through other people in multiplayer and bullshit my exploding opponents; if Gears of War has a heart, I've only found it in a flood of viscera.