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Alleged Footage Of Rumored Gears Of War Ultimate Appears Online
For the past week, there have been rumors of a Gears of War remake for Xbox One circulating online. The stories were spurred by a listing Gears of War Ultimate for Xbox One on the Brazilian Advisory Rating Board, though the listing has been changed a number of times (reading as an “error” last week and now as “Null 3”).
Yesterday, footage purported to be taken from the remastered title appeared online. The footage was taken offscreen, making it more difficult to determine if it’s from a new product. However, additional original video content was found earlier on XboxDVR and NeoGAF members point to mirrored videos still available.
In the off-screen video above, there is a watermark that appears over the entire image from the lower-left corner to the upper right. This is typically used by film studios and, more recently, game publishers to individualize each version should anything (like this) appear online. In this case, it’s a user with the Gamertag “Scardro.” Unfortunately, that user's Xbox Live privacy settings are such that we can't glean anything useful.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if the publisher is willing to help us make sense of this footage. We’ll update should we receive a response.
A new Gears of War title (likely different from this remake) is in development at Black Tusk under the supervision of Rod Fergusson. Fergusson worked on the Gears of War franchise at Epic Games.
Update: Microsoft responded to our request for comment and explanation of the footage. "We have nothing to announce at this time," a representative told us via email.
Update #2: According to a report from Kotaku, Microsoft and testing company VMC have identified and disabled the Xbox One systems of those found in violation of an NDA. You can read a letter from VMC to testers obtained by Kotaku for more information.
[Source: Eurogamer, XboxDVR, Mega via NeoGAF]
Our Take
There are enough pieces in play right now (the posted and altered Brazilian Advisory Rating Board listing, the Xbox Live profile, the watermarked off-screen footage, and the sharp XboxDVR videos) that I feel comfortable putting this forward as a possibility. This is either a convincing fake or “Scardro” (and others) are going to have some uncomfortable questions to answer.
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