On October 27th 2015, Microsoft released its newest iteration for its flagship franchise called Halo 5: Guardians. The night of its release was unlike anything seen in gaming. It was a spectacle of developer interviews, deep look backs at past Halo games and their release days, there was even a person playing Halo and their gameplay being broadcast from a blimp. The whole night was filled with these types of events and many, many people tuned in to watch. But not only was the midnight release big for Halo, it was the months leading up to the gaming giants release that, barring you had no pulse, you couldn’t help but get excited. See Halo is not only games, sure it may have started out that way but since the release of Halo: Combat Evolved back in 2001 this franchise has gone on to produce a multitude of comics, books, short films and even a toy line. Needless to say, this franchise has catapulted to the upper tier of gaming greats, but with the release of the Xbox 360, Halo may have found its equal when in 2006 Epic Games released Gears of War exclusively for the platform.
For five years Halo ran unopposed as the game to buy for any Xbox owner. Being the most dominant seller in Xbox history never seemed to bother Gears who stepped into the scene selling around 600,000 copies worldwide within its first week. Gears of War then went on to sell nearly 6 million units over its lifetime and also release two sequels (Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3) that each sold well over 5 million units throughout their lifetime. Its also of note that Gears of War: Judgement (a prequel to the first game) was released back in 2013 but received little fanfare for its shift from the core Gears gameplay, which had a more slow paced cover shooting mechanic, Judgement opted for a faster pace which at the time was the way most shooters were headed. But even with the mild setback for the franchise it was clear that Gears had established itself as a major player for the Xbox brand.
Gears of War: Judgement was the last time we saw a new story come from this franchise. But with the recent developments of Microsoft buying Gears from Epic Games and also announcing Gears 4 at E3 2015 with a release window of holiday 2016, I can’t help but think that a franchise that has become so important to the Xbox brand it should receive the same amount of attention and probably more importantly, marketing dollars as Halo 5 has? Personally I would have to say yes, the reason being that there’s no secret that Gears had the second largest fan base on Xbox. So I say why not give the fans something to get really excited about while also gaining the attention and interest of those who may not be too familiar with the franchise? The only real way of accomplishing that would be to give Gears the funds and the attention that Halo receives. Let’s see a Gears app filed with lore and developer content like the Halo Channel has. I want to see the books being pushed to let people know that there’s more to this franchise than surviving an onslaught of giant mutant locus. I’ll repeat it again cause I want to see this happen. Let’s see Gears of War get the Halo treatment because it definitely deserves it. If you agree or disagree tell me why in the comments below. Thanks for the read and happy new year, gamers.
