The Coalition and Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios have made a firm pledge with Gears of War 5: There will be no DLC gatekeeping whatsoever and no random rewards in game. That means no loot boxes, and no season pass extras that you need to buy. All maps will be free for everyone to play online and off and any unlockable content will be only acquirable through in-game play.
This is almost the exact opposite of the way game development has been heading for AAA titles in recent years. Studios such as Ubisoft, 2K, and EA, have all focused on delivering additional content through micro-transaction store fronts, be that new single player campaign missions, skins, maps, or weapon packs — it's all been buyable. Often it feels like these games are designed to funnel players down a path that encourages them to pay real money for (often randomly generated) rewards to help speed up their progression.
But that's not happening with Gears 5.
Announced in a new "Earning content" blog post on the Gears 5 website, developer The Coalition explains that players will be able to complete a "Tour of Duty" to unlock new content.
"We’ve committed to delivering more earnable content than ever before through an extensive new system called Tour of Duty," the developer explains. "You take on Daily Challenges and seasonal Medals to rank up and earn customization content (including character skins)."
There will be no premium unlocks, nothing restricted to anyone and nothing randomized. You'll know exactly what you need to do to unlock everything and that will not change in the future. The only restriction at all, will be that new content will be refreshed infrequently, meaning that somethings will be locked in the past if you don't unlock them in a timely fashion.
But those that do will have done so through effort and skill, not a loaded credit card.
There will be experience and progression boosts that you can buy with "iron" a currency that you can buy in game and out, but that won't affect play beyond cutting the time investment required for those who don't have it.
It's not an ideal system, but it's far better than we've seen from most in recent years.
