Why Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition Only Has One Remake Instead Of Three

Remastering games seems like it would be a hop, skip and a jump, but that's not always the case. For Gears of War: Ultimate Edition developer The Coalition was asked why they only have one Gears game remastered instead of three, and the studio head explained that it's because remastering games is hard.

Gamespot managed to get in word with Rod Fergusson, the studio head at development studio The Coalition, at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. They asked Fergusson why there was only one Gears of War game getting remastered for the Xbox One as opposed to three games – similar to how Halo: The Master Chief Collection contains all the major games starring Master Chief – and Fegursson replied with the following...

That's one of the most honest responses I've read in a long time. I also like it.

It's rare that we just hear from a developer that the reason some features make not make into a boxed copy is because it's hard and it takes a long time. In this case Fergusson admits that the studio already had their hands full stepping into the shoes of Epic Games and attempting to revitalize the Gears of War franchise following the release of Gears of War: Judgment.

Now, some of you might be wondering “how come The Master Chief Collection had so many games bundled in but GoW: Ultimate Edition can't, even though they were both made by studios who didn't originally make the games?” Well, keep in mind that 343 Industries had already been working internally on Halo games well before they took on the monumental task of tackling the Master Chief Collection.

In fact, 343 Industries had already completed Halo 4 so they knew the ins and outs of the franchise by the time they managed to get around to bundling in the game with the other three titles. That's not to mention that they didn't have to touch the remastered edition of Halo: Combat Evolved since they had already handled that one years before. Technically the only two major overhauls they had to worry about was Halo 3 and Halo 2 (and more-so the latter than the former).

For Gears of War, The Coalition is coming in cold. They have to try to get acquainted with the series and that can definitely be a scary thing. However, they're getting their feet wet with the series in the same way that 343 got their feet wet with the anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. Hopefully this means that The Coalition will be able to handle Gears of War 4 without as much of a hassle. And maybe, just maybe, later on down the line we'll see a proper Gears of War: Marcus Fenix Collection at some point.