In an interview with Eurogamer, members of Microsoft’s The Coalition revealed that Gears 5 will be an Xbox Series X launch title. The third-person shooter released last year on Xbox One and PC, and those that already own it will be able to play it on Microsoft’s new console for free, no upgrade fee. As previously announced, all of Microsoft’s first-party games will support Smart Delivery, so switching between systems doesn’t cost players anything.
The Xbox Series X version of Gears 5 will apparently be equivalent to running the game on a PC at ultra settings. The Coalition also added improved contact shadows and ray-traced screen-space global illumination. Cutscenes will now run at 60 frames per second rather than 30 as well. Impressively, the team was able to achieve all of this on Series X in just two weeks, although considerable optimization is being done ahead of the new system’s launch later this year.
“I think we’re really positive to kind of see how this thing is performing, especially knowing how much untapped performance is still there in the box based on the work we’ve done so far,” Coalition tech director Mike Rayner said. “Gears 5 will be optimized, so the work that you’ve seen today will be there, available at launch on Xbox Series X. The title will support Smart Delivery, so if you already have the title in whatever form you’ll be able to get it on Series X for free.”
Xbox Series X is currently set to release in holiday 2020, although no exact price or date is set.
