'Gears of War 4' Release Date Set Earlier for Fall 2016 — What We Know So Far?

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"Gears of War" fans would be glad to know that they won't be waiting too long for the highly-anticipated game, which was originally slated to be released this holiday season, as per the official announcement at E3 last summer. However, Gamespot reported that, during a livestream broadcast, Microsoft confirmed that the game is slated to launch in fall 2016.

According to Cinema Blend, the multiplayer beta test will launch this spring and will be open first to those who purchased "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" for the Xbox One. Over one million gamers purchased "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" for Xbox One and 45% of "Ultimate Edition" players are actually new to the "Gears of War" franchise.

Back in August, GameSpot got the inside scoop from Rod Fergusson, head of developer The Coalition and the co-creator of "Gears of War" on "Ultimate Edition".

"It’s awesome to go back, and sort of revisit old friends, and get to work on stuff I wanted to fix back at the time," Fergusson shared. "I think everyone has rose-colored glasses on when you think of the original. But this time around, we could adjust for certain things that new technology allows for. It was a balancing act between modernization and nostalgia."

"It was really our way of deconstructing nostalgia, and going back to our roots. It allowed us to talk about philosophical things, like ‘What makes Gears, Gears?’" Fergusson talked about "Gears of War 4." "That notion of cover distances, spawning in waves, the idea of intimate violence."

Fergusson, whose credits also include "BioShock Infinite", returned to Microsoft to develop "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" and subsequently the fourth installment, spoke to USA Today about his return back in September.

"I came back to Microsoft to work on Gears again—and that was about January 2014—and they talked about taking the franchise forward and making Gears of War 4," he admitted. "It takes about three years to make a Gears game, so we had a discussion around how can we get Gears of War on Xbox One sooner for the fans, and the idea of remastering came up."

"It felt like going back to the original was a good way to—it’s been the longest sort of absence, and it felt like a good entry point for potentially new players to kind of get into it," Fergusson explained.

Fergusson also added that there was a lot of gamer feedback to work with in creating "Gears of War 4". "What we hear is people want to go back to that feeling that they had when they first played Gears 1—that sense of mystery, that sense of wonder, that sense of drama and tension," he said.

"Gears of War 4" beta begins this spring. For more information, visit Xbox.com.