'Gears 5' was ahead of schedule. So The Coalition rewrote the rules.

The entire Gears 5 story mode was playable by the end of 2018, albeit in rough form. That was almost a full year before it eventually launched on Sept. 6, 2019.

That's definitely not common in game development, and it's even less so when you're talking about a blockbuster franchise like Gears. There's a growing understanding among the people who play games that development is a tricky process, and that a lot of the time, major productions come together just under the wire.

So Gears 5 was almost a full year ahead of the curve. It wasn't the polished gem back in 2018 that it is now. But before Christmas of that year, The Coalition had built something sturdy enough that people could take it home over the holiday break and play it from start to finish. Read more...