Diablo 4 boss' plan for Gears of War 6 would've taken the series to space, but 'we weren't going to start Mass Effect-ing this'

Rodd Fergusson, former lead developer of Gears of War, revealed plans for Gears of War 6 that included venturing off-planet to the UIR territory and exploring the consequences of player choices in Gears 5, but the game was ultimately shelved when he left The Coalition.

Diablo 4 lead Rodd Fergusson was previously known for his work on pretty much every single Gears of War game, well before his involvement in Blizzard's dark and loot-filled world, and he's now opened up about what the plan for Gears of War 6 looked like before his departure from developer The Coalition.

Asked about his opinions on the recently-revealed prequel Gears of War: E-Day in an interview with Podcast Unlocked, Fergusson said "it's a little surreal to have something come out about Gears that I haven't been involved in. You know, I spent 15 years with Gears of War and basically every game that was made - I think 9 or 10 total." 

Fergusson said that he was surprised by The Coalition's decision to explore the series' past, rather than continue a story that was only partway done in Gears 5, but it was ultimately "really smart" because fans had been asking to see E-Day - the moment when the Locust first erupted from the ground - for years. But as he previously explained, OG series developer Epic Games never depicted Gears of War: E-Day's events because the team couldn't "do it justice" on the Xbox 360.

Things get extra juicy when Fergusson talks about the plans for Gears of War 6 that he left behind since, surprisingly, the sequel was apparently going to take us off the Earth-like planet of Sera for the very first time. "Gears 6 was to leave Sera," he said. "That was something we were building to. If you paid attention to the story in Gears 5, you come across the UIR [Union of Independent Republics] sort-of rocket technology. We were sort of laying the seeds and the groundwork that in taking over that UIR territory, we've adopted their space program. So what I wanted to do with Gears 6 is take you off Sera to encounter what that could mean to the rest of the galaxy or, at least, the rest of the solar system. Not that you'd be hopping [between planets], but... it was old, Russian-era, sputnik-type tech, so we weren't going to start Mass Effect-ing this. It was really about, 'let's get you to a new place to encounter what this looks like.'"

Gears of War 6 wasn't just going to space, however, it was also going to have to deal with the end of Gears 5, which made players choose between saving JD or Del, the first time in series history where players impacted the story and the previously very tight-knit continuity. Fergusson doesn't reveal what The Coalition's plans were for JD and/or Del in the sixth mainline game, though he does note that the choice was pretty "neck-and-neck."

While we won't see a continuation to Kait Diaz's story any time soon with E-Day still in active development, The Coalition has said it still has eyes on Gears 6 and it isn't "retreating" from the story it began.