Epic Worked On 'Gears Of War 4' For 6 Months And Then Abandoned It -- Why?

After the huge success of the “Gears of War” trilogy, Epic Games was planning to continue a fourth installment. People Can Fly also co-developed a side story that turned out to be “Gears of War: Judgment.” However, after working on the potential “Gears of War 4,” Epic Games abandoned the project.

The first “Gears of War” released in 2006 and was a big hit. The next two editions were even more successful. The Coalition stated that future “Gears of War 4” players logged in over 2.3 billion hours of the multiplayer mode.

Epic Games did not officially announce the coming of “Gears of War 4,” but their project, which lasted for six months, inspired the current version being worked on by The Coalition.

Game Informer reports that Epic Games worked on the preproduction of “Gears of War 4” for six months and then abandoned it. The company subsequently sold the game franchise to Microsoft.

Rod Fergusson, studio head of The Coalition, said that years ago, Epic Games believed that they would only build technology that they would use.

“So if Gears didn’t need it, it generally didn’t get put into the engine. That was from a perspective of, if we don’t use it, it’s going to decay. If we don’t touch it, it will just rot on the vine and then we’d have bad code. That’s not how it was with Gears [of War] 4. Epic’s initial Gears 4 engine was very mobile- and PC-centric more than it was console-focused. You can see their focus shift towards games like Fortnite and Paragon and stuff like that,” Fergusson explained.

Most likely, “Gears of War 4” was put in the background to focus on other projects, especially after Tencent purchased a 48.4 stake in Epic Games. At the time, the company might not have ideas on how “Gears of War 4” would suit in to the new vision. Fergusson later left the company, which left the next “Gears” project without a leader.

Microsoft Xbox division head Phil Spencer also confirmed that Epic Games underwent ownership adjustments and focus changes, so they did not have a clear roadmap on where “Gears of War 4” was supposed to lead. He continued that they acknowledge how the franchise is critical to their brand, so they took the opportunity to acquire the IP and have a team work on the next installment under the supervision of The Coalition. Fergusson was also back on board to help with the project.

Game Spot writes that “Gears of War 4” will launch in fall 2016. More updates and details on “Gears of War 4” are expected soon.