Gears 6 Release Window, Plot, Platforms, and New Game Director for the Anticipated Sequel

Gears 5 was a spiritual reboot to the 14-year-old Gears of War series that laid the foundations for more generations for many more years to come.

Besides the obvious name change seemingly inspired by The Fast and the Furious' reduction to Fast & Furious and eventually just Fast, Gears 5 shifted its focus away from JD Fenix to make Kait Diaz its protagonist, experimenting with an RPG element during a pivotal moment of the story. This change in direction, coupled with sharpened controls expected from any modern sequel, made Gears 5 the uncontested best Xbox exclusive of 2019.

As such, there will likely be more installments of the gruesome franchise. Here's everything we know about the seemingly inevitable Gears 6.

When Is the Gears 6 Release Date?

Microsoft has not confirmed Gears 6, so it lacks an official release date. Still, fans shouldn’t worry about whether there will be a follow-up. Gears 5 was declared Microsoft’s most successful first-party release since Halo 4 on Xbox 360, so a sequel is essentially guaranteed. When could that realistically happen, however?

Gears 5 hit shelves on September 6, 2019, three years after the release of Gears of War 4. However, in a blog post on May 10, 2021, developer The Coalition says it won’t be unveiling any new games for “some time.”

The latest leaks suggest Gears 6 is still several years away. A now removed section on the ArtStation page for David Masson San Gabriel, a Senior Concept Artist/Costume Illustrator, claimed that the artist is working on an unannounced project for Gears 5 developer The Coalition that is slated for a 2026 release. Though, even if this is true, it does not confirm that the unannounced project is the next Gears game. It could be an entirely new IP.

On Which Consoles Will Gears of War 6 Be Released?

The Gears franchise is consistently released on both Xbox consoles and PC as part of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere program. There are no signs suggesting that Gears 6 will be any different, especially because Xbox has very few high-profile exclusives compared to its competitors.

Is Rod Fergusson Working on Gears 6?

Rod Fergusson has been a part of the Gears franchise since the original title, having filled many roles from title to title. He also directed Gears 5. Fergusson announced on Twitter on February 5, 2020, that he parted ways with Microsoft-owned studio The Coalition to head Activision Blizzard’s Diablo franchise. He has played a pivotal role in every Gears of War game since the series’ debut in 2006, and Microsoft has yet to announce whoever might replace Fergusson as the Gears 6 game director moving forward.

“I began working on Gears of War over 15 years ago and since then, it has been the joy of my life,” he wrote. “But now it’s time for a new adventure. I leave Gears in the great hands of The Coalition.”

While this is a pretty big loss for the studio, Gears of War will almost certainly grind on.

Major Gears 5 spoilers ahead.

What Is the Plot of Gears 6?

Gears 5 leaves ample room for a sequel to continue the story of Kait and her squadmates. They only barely manage to fend off a brutal attack by the Swarm, a race of hivemind invaders that are the main antagonists in the series. The threat of this monstrous race still looms, as always, when the credits roll.

As Kait, Delmont “Del” Walker, and James Dominic “JD” Fenix enter the final battle of Gears 5, Kait is faced with an impossible choice: The team comes face-to-face with the queen of the Swarm, who happens to be a mutated tentacled humanoid of Kait’s mother, Reyna Diaz, who was captured by the creatures some time ago.

The Queen takes Del and JD hostage, and Kait only has time to save one of them. Kait frees whichever teammate players choose to save and is forced to watch in terror as the Queen snaps the neck of the other.

It’s possible that The Coalition will allow gamers to port their final save to the next Gears installment, similar to what franchises like Mass Effect have done in the past. The Coalition will likely establish some kind of “canon” ending where one of these characters survives and the other dies, which is usually the case with these types of endings. Either way, this cliffhanger is too big to let sit for too long.

When Will We Learn More About Gears 6?

Microsoft and The Coalition likely won’t share details about Gears 6 for some time. In May 2021, the developer explained that the shift to Unreal Engine 5 means that all of their games are a ways out and not getting announced anytime soon.

“Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time,” the blog post explains, while still highlighting that Gears 5 will continue to get post-launch support. As for the next mainline game in the series, don’t expect to hear about it until we’re closer to its release, whenever that may be.

Gears 6 has not been officially announced.