Gears Studio The Coalition Confirms Two Projects In Development, Will Use Unreal Engine 5

Gears developer The Coalition is now making games using the Unreal Engine 5, which is the latest edition of Epic's game development tools that promise better graphics. The studio also confirmed it has multiple new projects in the works.

In a blog post, The Coalition said, "We're excited to start shifting our resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5."

The Gears series has a close connection to that engine, of course, as the franchise was originally developed by Epic Games itself before Microsoft acquired it. The original Gears of War was one of the first games to run at 720p on Xbox 360, while Gears 5 was updated on Xbox Series X|S to support 120fps on console in 2020.

In its blog post, The Coalition said it has "multiple new projects" in the works that will be developed using Unreal Engine 5. These games won't be announced soon, however.

"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 studio said.

In the meantime, The Coalition will continue to support Gears 5 with more operations through Operations 7 and 8. Each one will include new characters and maps. The Coalition said it will support Gears 5 with new store content through the end of the year.

It's been rumored for some time that The Coalition is assisting 343 Industries with Halo Infinite, but the studio has never commented on that. In terms of what the studio's future projects might be, a sequel to Gears 5 seems likely. Outside of that, reporter Jeff Grubb recently said The Coalition might be working on a new IP or a Star Wars game.

As for Unreal Engine 5, it was announced in May 2019. Epic claims it will offer "photorealism on par with movie CG and real life." To showcase the power of the new engine, Epic created a tech demo called "Lumen in the Land of Nanite."

The new games from The Coalition join Wasteland developer inXile's next game and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, among others, in using Unreal Engine 5.