Gears of War

Gears of War is a video game franchise created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Microsoft Studios. The series focuses on the conflict between humanity, the subterranean reptilian hominids known as the Locust Horde, and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent. The franchise consists of four third-person shooter video games, which has also been supplemented by a comic book series and five novels.

The first installment, titled Gears of War, was released on November 7, 2006 for the Xbox 360. The game follows protagonist Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments tasked to lead a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. Two subsequent titles, Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011), continued Fenix and humanity’s ongoing conflict with the Locust Horde and Lambent forces. In 2013, Epic Games and Microsoft released Gears of War: Judgment, a prequel to the series’ first title, which instead focuses on Damon Baird, one of Fenix's squad-mates. At E3 2015, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was announced for Microsoft Windows.

Gears of War 4

Gears of War 4 is an upcoming third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition, and published by Microsoft Studios for Xbox One. The game is set to be released in 2016. It will be the sixth installment in the Gears of War series and the fourth main installment. It will be the sequel to Gears of War 3.

Development

During E3 2013, Microsoft Studios vice president Phil Spencer said he thought more Gears of War games were possible.

On January 27, 2014, Microsoft announced that they had purchased the rights of the franchise from Epic Games, and a new game will be developed by The Coalition for Xbox One.Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the Gears of War franchise, joined Microsoft and plays a key studio leadership role at The Coalition on the development of the franchise going forward. On April 1, 2015, The Coalition's eSports, cinematics, and weapons producer, Allie "JackFelling" Henze, confirmed that Gears of War 4 will not be available for the Xbox 360.

Gear

A gear or cogwheel is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque, in most cases with teeth on the one gear being of identical shape, and often also with that shape on the other gear. Two or more gears working in a sequence (train) are called a gear train or, in many cases, a transmission; such gear arrangements can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source. The most common situation is for a gear to mesh with another gear; however, a gear can also mesh with a linear toothed part, called a rack, thereby producing translation instead of rotation.

The gears in a transmission are analogous to the wheels in a crossed belt pulley system. An advantage of gears is that the teeth of a gear prevent slippage.

When two gears mesh, and one gear is bigger than the other (even though the size of the teeth must match), a mechanical advantage is produced, with the rotational speeds and the torques of the two gears differing in an inverse relationship.