‘Gears of War 4’ Release Date and Beta Testing News; There Will be Another New Trilogy

Mar 25, 2016 05:11 PM EDT

The Xbox One had a lot of exclusive games, and one of the biggest franchises associated with the console is the Gears of War series.  Gears of War 4 will be released later this year, and the beta test is coming up sooner than that.  The creators of the game have recently announced that in addition to Gears of War 4, there will also be another trilogy that will continue the series, and this is the information that we have on it so far. 

CNET reports that Gears of War 4 is to have a story that will lay the foundations for a new trilogy.  Chuck Osieja, the creative director of the sequel, has stated that there is a foundation for not just a trilogy, but a much larger universe.  Studio director Rod Fergusson has stated that they don't want to have "alternate planets and things like that" but wanted to stay on Sera.  

Sera is a planet in the Gears of War universe colonized by humans, and will serve as the setting for Gears of War 4, which will take place 25 years after Gears of War 3.  The characters will be JD Fenix, the son of Marcus, a character from previous incarnations of Gears of War.  JD and his partner Kait will team up to fight a new threat that is different from the Locust, the big enemy from the other game series.  Perhaps this new threat is the set-up for this new trilogy, but the story of Gears of War 4 is one of survival, taking place within a 24 hour period.  

There has been some news about the graphics and frame rate of the game.  According to Gotta Be Mobile, Gears of War will run at 1080p at 30fps for the campaign portion of the game and 60 fps for the multiplayer portion. 

It really just makes sense that Gears of War is going in this direction with three more games.  After all, most contemporary hit films are not just one film, but take place in some Cinematic Universe.  Look at the examples of Marvel and DC, who use every film to branch out and set up another film in the same universe.  Gears of War is one of the biggest video game franchises, and it looks like a lot of other video game franchises like Destiny are already doing this long-term plan. 

Gears of War 4 will be available sometime in Fall or Holiday of 2016, with no specific release date.  The beta will be starting on April 25th, and qualifying for the Beta will require a purchase of the Gears of War Ultimate Edition, the Xbox One remake of the first game of the series.  The deadline to be involved with the beta is on April 11th, and the beta will end on May 1st.

There will be no release of Gears of War 4 to the Xbox 360, but there is talk of a PC version of the game to come out.