Tag: The Coalition

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Vancouver’s The Coalition has reportedly canceled two games, shifted focus to Gears 6

Vancouver-based The Coalition has reportedly cancelled two games to focus on Gears 6.

Credible Giant Bomb reporter Jeff Grubb made the claims on the latest episode of his “Game Mess Mornings” show. According to Grubb, the Xbox-owned developer has cancelled a “smaller project, as well as another project.” It’s unclear exactly what these might have been, but a since-updated LinkedIn profile from a Coalition developer indicated that at least one of these titles was a new IP.

Part of this, he says, comes down to the widespread layoffs made by Microsoft last month, which were said to have affected The Coalition to an unclear degree.

Now, Grubb says that The Coalition is “fully” focused on Gears 6. Interestingly, Grubb says it still “feels like it’s very far away,” predicting that it will likely come “in the next three years.” The last mainline Gears game was 2019’s Gears 5.

However, The Coalition has since worked on a variety of projects beyond what Grubb says was cancelled. On top of releasing Gears 5‘s well-received Hivebusters DLC at the end of 2020, the Canadian developer assisted on development with 2020’s Gears Tactics and 2021’s Halo Infinite. The Coalition also worked with Epic Games on the now-delisted photorealistic Unreal Engine 5 Matrix Awakens tech demo featuring Canada’s own Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. Beyond Gears 6, we also know that The Coalition is working with Netflix on a live-action Gears of War movie and animated series.

Therefore, The Coalition is clearly busy, so it remains to be seen when we might actually get a reveal of Gears 6. Xbox recently confirmed that it will hold its traditional major summer showcase in June, so perhaps we’ll get an update there.

Image credit: Xbox

Source: Giant Bomb

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Netflix partners with Vancouver’s The Coalition on Gears of War movie, series

Netflix has announced that it is working with Xbox on at least two adaptations of the Gears of War series.

In a social media post, the company revealed it’s teamed up with Xbox-owned The Coalition, the Vancouver-based developer of Gears, to produce a live-action movie and adult animated series. Additionally, the streamer says there’s the potential for more stories following those two adaptations.

It’s unclear whether the movie and/or series will directly adapt the games or take more of a shared universe approach à la Netflix’s own Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Arcane, spin-offs of Cyberpunk 2077 and League of Legends, respectively. It also remains to be seen who else will be involved with the Gears of War projects beyond The Coalition. Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has long expressed interest in playing series hero Marcus Fenix, and Xbox eventually even let him take on the role via a skin in Gears 5.

The announcement comes in celebration of the 16th anniversary of the third-person shooter series’ original game, which was developed by Epic Games and released on the Xbox 360. Since then, the acclaimed series has gone on to sell over 40 million copies. The most recent full Gears of War game was 2019’s Gears 5, although a Hivebusters expansion pack was released the following year, as was the turn-based strategy title Gears Tactics. 

In any event, it’s been a long time coming for a Gears of War movie, which has been said to be development at various companies going back as far as 2007.

Image credit: Xbox

Source: Netflix

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Vancouver’s The Coalition pledges 1 percent of all Gears of War revenue for suicide prevention

Vancouver-based The Coalition has pledged to donate one percent of net revenue from all Gears of War games and merchandise to suicide prevention.

To coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, the Xbox-owned developer says it’s launching this multi-year ‘Never Fight Alone’ initiative, starting with Crisis Text Line. The New York-based global non-profit provides free, 24/7 text-based mental health support and crisis intervention in Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Ireland using trained volunteers.

The Coalition says it aims to partner with additional mental health advocacy groups in the future. In the meantime, the studio is also inviting people to share their stories and words of support via the official Gears of War Twitter channel and/or using the hashtag #NeverFightAlone. You can also purchase a special ‘Never Fight Alone’ t-shirt from the Xbox Gear Store, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go directly to Crisis Text Line.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, there are a number of organizations in Canada that offer 24/7 support, including Talk Suicide Canada (1-833-456-4566), Kids Help Phone, the Hope for Wellness Help Line, and, for Quebec residents, 1-866-APPELLE (277-3553).

Source: Xbox

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Here’s an ultra pretty Unreal Engine 5 demo from Vancouver’s The Coalition

Epic Games has officially launched Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), the latest version of its ubiquitous game development engine.

The launch came during Epic’s April 5th ‘State of Unreal’ stream. As part of the presentation, Vancouver’s The Coalition, the Xbox-owned studio behind the recent Gears of War titles, has unveiled a tech demo to showcase the engine’s capabilities on Xbox Series X.

The demo, titled “The Cavern,” features brief looks at various technical elements, including real-time lighting and reflections, character rendering, open-world visuals and cinematics. The most significant part of the demo features a man fleeing from a creature in a dark cave.

Of course, this is a highly polished short tech demo, not an actual game. Still, the photorealistic visuals are extremely impressive, especially since this is so early in UE5’s life cycle. A more tech jargon-filled breakdown of The Cavern can be found on Xbox’s blog.

Other news that came out of the State of Unreal show includes confirmation that Crystal Dynamics, the lead developer of 2013’s Tomb Raider and 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, is working on a new Tomb Raider game on UE5.