Why Is Gears of War Dev Only Remaking the First Game?

Today at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Gears of War developer The Coalition revealed that it was resources and time kept them from doing a full remaster of the entire Gears of War series. The studio is developing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, but opted to stop at the first game instead of remaking the series like Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

When asked why the studio is only remaking the first Gears of War game, studio head of developer Coalition, Rod Feguson, responded by saying it was difficult enough doing a single remaster. He said that the studio isn't big enough or well-versed enough in developing a Gears game to take on a remake of the entire series. "It's really hard work [to remaster an entire series]," Ferguson explained "It takes a long time. It took us in the end 16-18 months to do the first one, and to try and do three games... How many people would we need to have? It just wasn't logistically or physically or technically possible. For us it was really about what can we do, what can we focus on."

Ferguson said that the developer's decision to focus on the first game resulted from a desire to get better acquainted with the Gears of War franchise: "We had a brand new studio which had never made a Gears game before, and having to go in and remaster--because we went right down to the studs of this thing--meant that everyone had to learn what it takes to make a Gears of War game. It was sort of this on-ramp to the franchise to get ready for Gears of War 4."

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launches on August 25 for Xbox One and on a later date for PC. It will come as a free pack-in with every new Xbox One console following its release, the developer announced during the same panel. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about Gears of War in the coming months.