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The Coalition will follow Rod Fergusson’s “intention” for Gears of War while experimenting with new genres and media, after his move to Blizzard Entertainment (via IGN).
From Gears of War to Gears 5, Fergusson had supervised the development of the franchise for more than fifteen years, and commended The Coalition and the community for their devotion and passion for the world of Gears of War. He now works for Blizzard Entertainment to guide the development of Diablo.
Fergusson was a constant for The Coalition, but his departure should not worry Gears of War fans. Speaking with IGN, narrative director Bonnie Jean Mah confirmed that the studio is “confident” it will continue to carry Fergusson’s “intention” for the series, and also seize opportunities as they arise. “We’ve been living it, we’ve been realizing his creative vision over the past six years. So now that he's gone off to new adventures, I feel like we have it in our studio blood and our studio gut feeling about what would happen next,” explained Mah. “And we do have hints of what he was thinking of, but he was also very open to new ideas for what would happen next.”
Gears Tactics is the latest entry in the series, but it’s probable that The Coalition is currently laying the groundwork for Gears 6. We may be waiting a while for that game, but there will be new Gears of War stories in the interim. “There are certain things that I feel we’re strong at with Gears of War. We tell these very over the top stories, but we ground them with believable characters, believable performances… What we write is a really strong way of uniting our games, no matter what they are,” she stated, referring to Tactics’ role as a spin-off strategy title and as a canonical entry in the general Gears of War narrative.
“I’m just really excited about all the different avenues of stories that we can tell,” enthused Mah. “We’re figuring that out next, but Tactics is a great opportunity to tell a brand new story that’s going to fulfill that Gears of War itch, while we figure out and plan what’s going to happen next in the main series. So I just feel like we have so many opportunities for our fans and our players to still get engaged in our universe. And we’re not going to stop.”
Gears Tactics is available for PC and Xbox One.
