Update []: Don't get your hopes up about this! Phil Spencer has revealed that he's been playing the Gears games with a colleague at work, so there seems to be nothing in this - unfortunately!
Original Story: Remember a few years ago when some sort of Gears of War remastered collection seemed to be constantly churning away in the rumour mill? Well, those rumours have died down quite a lot over the last year or so - but Xbox boss Phil Spencer's recent gaming activity is getting people's hopes up once again.
Basically, Phil has been spotted revisiting Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 recently - two titles that have long been rumoured to make up some sort of 'Marcus Fenix Collection'. Phil has only been playing the Xbox 360 versions of course, but the timing of this fresh Gears activity from the Xbox boss is certainly intriguing.
Furthermore, if you check out Phil's Gamerscore activity relating to both of these titles, you can see just how long the boss has left these games alone before revisiting them. He earned a Gears of War 2 achievement in April 2009 before a flurry of fresh gamerscore was earned starting December 23rd, 2024 - while Gears 3 has an achievement gap ranging from January 2013 to January 2025.
Ultimately, we don't yet know the reasons behind Phil revisiting these classic Gears games. Our theory is that the Xbox boss is most likely refreshing his memory before Gears E-Day comes out, while some folks on the series' subreddit are hoping that it could relate to this mysterious Gears collection. You never know, maybe the boss simply fancied playing some old school Gears of War over the holidays!
Anyway, we'll have to wait and see if anything comes of this - we obviously have the Xbox Developer Direct this week, alongside other opportunities for Microsoft to make some Gears-related announcements throughout the year. All we'll say is, probably don't get your hopes up about a remaster collection just yet.
What do you think Phil's up to here? Talk to us about this discovery down in the comments.
Comments 37
The rumor that never dies haha
I’m not expecting it but it would be awesome if true. I still haven’t played the series outside of trying the first couple missions of 4 when it came out. I’d definitely prefer a modern version.
If true then expect it to be announced for PS5 too. That’s fine because we all know MS/Xbox’s strategy now in regards to first party games. I’ll look forward to playing it on Game Pass, again only if it’s true.
People are so obsessed with this man.
@TeiGekiLord RIght? Just let the man play games in peace. Not everything has to be a rumor or an article.
I don't know about you but if I knew a remake / remaster was coming I WOULDN'T be playing the old versions. Seems more like evidence it isn't coming to me.
This would be the ultimate troll if nothing comes to fruition.
I honestly don't care about a collection. The games are fine. I'll always prefer something new.
Then again, most people won't agree with me, so I hope something does really come from all this for them.
But I'm tired of remakes, remasters and that stuff.
He's playing games.
No it isn't.
I swear, if people caught wind that Phil Spencer was playing Pong, Pure Xbox would report that maybe Microsoft bought the IP and were doing a Pong reboot. Just let the guy play games without inferring anything 🤣
I would definitely play those games again 🙌🏻
@MaccaMUFC @MaccaMUFC what strategy if I may ask? Is that from a reliable source?
@Markatron84 As we said in the post, it seems most likely to be something to do with E-Day, maybe a revisit of the old games after a meeting with the dev team or something?
Either way, we think the timing is intriguing... the man hadn't been on Gears 2 since 2009
I cannot see him playing the older versions of the games if newer ones were available to him, or were about to be released. As for the achievements, very often remastered games share the exact same achievement lists, so maybe he is playing the remastered versions, and the achievements are showing on both lists? I don't know.
Seems unlikely to me that he is doing anything other than refreshing his memory, though as E-Day precedes all other games, even that is unnecessary. @Kezelpaso.
Personally, I hope the games have been remastered, and that they do not share achievements with the original games so that I can enjoy earning them all over again. Plus, a shadow-drop of the remastered collection at this weeks showcase would be awesome...
I want The Fenix Collection to be real so I don't buy the Raam's Shadow DLC just cuz I'm cheap.
@themightyant That is exactly what I thought.
@Enigk @themightyant It depends. If they announce anything, the guy is going to be bombarded with questions at press events and fan events, not to mention any Q&As scheduled after direct. In his shoes, I'd want to freshen up my memory on the OGs so as to not look clueless. Though it could be argued either way I reckon.
@Quickbeamx it's a fanboy twitter account.
I don't see why he'd replay them "now" if a collection is round the corner.
Prepping for E-Day? But weird for a prequel but... well I've done that before.
@Kaloudz But my point is he would have access to builds of the new unreleased version if it was imminent, he'd surely be playing that not the old 360 games.
He might just be replaying them because he likes them. December and January have been barren release months as well, so let the guy have some comfort food.
@TeiGekiLord I figured something like this. I see the narrative of "someone said" change to "a reliable source said" change throughout the week. Frustrating thing is that people just go with it and don't question the source.
@themightyant You're right. That is also very possible (and the most likely) but if he's only announcing, and release is over a year away, he may not have builds.
Keeping in mind that for this collection to work, it would need to match Halo MCC (with Halo 2 having a full graphical overhaul with fresh CGI etc)...
I dont care if it goes on other platforms, I just want it. Recently finished Ultimate edition and gears 4 on hard. Such a great experience and I liked the ultimate edition the most.
Intentionally skipped 2-3 for now due to remaster rumours but I heard they are even better.
So fingers crossed its coming.
@MaccaMUFC yes. I completely changed how I look on xbox. For me its a GP machine first of all now.
So until GP is relatively cheap and until I utilize it actively and extract value - I with xbox.
I just accepted 0 exclusivity and honestly my life got better lol.
I have PS and would buy Switch 2 for exclusives. If xbox hardware is done, then I already have other platforms with solid colllections. I will be fine.
I dont think its the best time to be a fanboy of xbox. Honestly any fanboying is bad
@Kaloudz I think the most likely reason, is one of his friends, or perhaps Phil himself, said "lets play Gears together" and they got into it, as gamers do. But people will see signs in anything, occasionally they will be right.
@Kezelpaso or, more likely and as I said in my post, it has nothing to do with anything and he's just playing games.
@themightyant Possibly so. If that is the case, the timing is brutal lol. Didn't they greenlight a live action series for this? Or am I confused?
@Kaloudz Yes movie and TV series, though perhaps discussion of those is what organically led to "lets play gears again".
Also good to see you back. 😊
@themightyant Yeah that's probably it. Little bit like how Fallout (TV) made everyone wanna play the game 😅
Thanks bud. Glad to be back.
I wondered whether it was you when I saw your name yesterday, @Kaloudz! Welcome back, matey. Just no one mention FTC... 🤣
@Fiendish-Beaver Hey you!!! How's you been brother? Oh god. I haven't been in touch with that news for a while. Are they still up in the MS grill? 🤣🤣
@Kaloudz @Fiendish-Beaver Don't... you'll start off my nightmares again. 🤦♂️
@FraserG Not to jinx it (and I know zero about how any of what I'm about to say will have any impact on the current comings and goings) but I wonder if anything changes on that front now that there's been a change of power over in the US...
Gotta say though, that whole year-long process was grueling 🤣 so many twists and turns.
On the topic of GoW. I'm really hoping they add an option in the remaster (when it eventually comes) to tone down the camera shake when running. That doesn't go hand in glove with epilepsy.
@Quickbeamx I’m not sure if you’re joking or not but I’ll bite. Sea of Thieves, High-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded have released on PS5 last year. Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are releasing this year on PS5.
There’s many articles about MS/Xbox's intentions to bring more games to PS5 going forward now that they know how well their games sell on PS5. Also Halo: Master Chief Collection, Flight Simulator 2024, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Age of Mythology, and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition are all rumoured to be coming to PS5. It doesn’t take a genius to see where MS/Xbox are going with their strategy for first party games.
Getting it ready for PS5 and Switch 2. Don't think for a second they give a crap about Xbox fans.
When will the Japanese version of Gears of War: Ultimate Collection be available?
@JokerBoy322
Hopefully PC as well.
Wasnt there already a gears remaster collection on xbone? I though i recall having that. Not sure why wed need one every gen.
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