Thu, Feb 24, 2011 | 10:16 GMT

Gears 3 out on September 20 worldwide – info embargo lifts 8pm GMT tonight

Microsoft’s confirmed it’ll launch Gears of War 3 worldwide on September 20, as well as releasing new info on weapons and maps.

Gears of War 3

First announced in April 2010 by Cliff Bleszinski on US TV.

Was due to launch on April 8 this year, but was delayed into fall this year back in October 2010.

Is the final part of the Gears of War trilogy.

A Kinect-enabled spin-off on the series is also thought to be in development.

Japan gets the game on September 22.

The news comes via way of Xbox EU community boss Graeme “AceyBongos” Boyd.

GoW3 was previously delayed from an April 8 launch to fall this year back in October of last year.

Microsoft’s also confirmed new multiplayer details, including new maps like Trenches, Overpass, Mercy, Checkout, and Thrashball.

New weapons for the game include the Bayonet Charge, the Retro Lancer, the Sawed-off Shotgun, the OneShot, the Incendiary Grenade, the Digger Launcher and tweaks to old weapons Hammerburst and the Classic Lancer.

Each weapon will also feature its own execution move.

Impressions from the game as well as interviews and news on the multiplayer beta will arrive later on tonight at 8pm GMT.

“Big” announcement

Producer Rod Fergusson previously tweeted that a “big” announcement on the game would be made today.

He said:

“A big Gears 3 announcement hits tomorrow!”

The news comes as Microsoft is holding an X11-type event in San Francisco this week. Justin Kranzl was at the event for VG247.

To help tide the release of the game, a multiplayer beta for Gears 3 will take place later this year.

The taster was first announced last year, when Epic announced it would take place early on this year. Scheduling reasons had kept the company from previously doing a taster until now.

The beta will be used as feedback for what will eventually go into the main game later this year.

Epic announced near the end of last year that those who buy the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm for 360 will get access to the beta, but Fergusson said earlier this week that buying the People Can Fly shooter isn’t the only way in.

“No, but it’s the best way in with [a] headstart and exclusive content,” he said.

Gears of War 3′s multiplayer will also support dedicated servers, with Epic design boss Cliff Bleszinski saying its addition will give players a “level playing field.”

“[Dedicated servers] are more about online performance because when you have a client-server architecture with Gears, you have somebody hosting and that host has somewhat of an inherent advantage over everybody else, which becomes this big [negative] thing,” he said at the time.

“Like, in Gears or in Counter-Strike, if somebody kicked your ass, you claimed they were wall hacking even though they weren’t. And now if you win in Gears it’s, ‘You have host advantage!’ But by removing [client servers] you suddenly have a level playing field for everybody. We have a server farm that Microsoft is helping us out with, so people will have a level playing field.”

32 comments

ton77
23/02/11, 7:15 am

awesome. i wonder what it’s gonna be.

osric90
23/02/11, 7:39 am

I need GoW, GoW2 and GoW3 on Steam right now.

locus2k1
23/02/11, 8:48 am

They’re going to announce whether or not Kenny… er, I mean Carmine dies?

Blerk
23/02/11, 8:54 am

Considering it’s so far away, I wonder if they’d consider doing a ‘bite-size’ XBLA Gears episode to tide people over, like Dead Rising 2 did last year?

Anyway, this’ll probably be the Kinect spin-off thing that was supposed to be announced at the VGAs, surely?

EscoBlades
23/02/11, 9:26 am

Gears of War Exile.

sonny
23/02/11, 10:04 am

A really big announcement would be Gears 1, 2, 3 coming to ps3

Gekidami
23/02/11, 10:08 am

@5
Yep, the news story about that should be mentioned in the article, imo.
http://www.vg247.com/2011/01/18/epic-trademarks-gears-of-war-exile/

mojo
23/02/11, 10:10 am

kinects of war?

Zana
23/02/11, 10:23 am

“We have decided to hire an art director.”

#10

OrbitMonkey
23/02/11, 10:33 am

Upcoming dlc for Gears 3.

#11

itsucks
23/02/11, 10:53 am

Announcement: We decided to delay Gears 2 to 2012 so all shooters on the shooterstationsequelitis can have a shot at 100.000 unitis sold and not just 1.000 if they were going against our 2 million in 24hours.
pieceofshit3 it only does nothin.

#12

OrbitMonkey
23/02/11, 11:31 am

^ Someone needs a edit button…

#13

Crysis
23/02/11, 11:36 am

@12, DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE IT!!!

#14

Erthazus
23/02/11, 11:50 am

@itsucks, but he is actually right to be honest. I mean really, lets see if Killzone 3 can sell more then Killzone 2 which was a dissapointment for a company.

We all know that Microsoft will push gears Of War 3 to death and it will sell like hotcake. considering it’s christmas and Gears Of war 1-2 sold for 5 million units +

Multiplatform titles like Crysis 2 or Portal 2 will sell good, everyone know that, so…

#15

Crysis
23/02/11, 11:56 am

@14, Who gives a flying fuck about sales? My guess is pathetic & childish fanboys & the people behind the actual product.

#16

Suikoden Fan
23/02/11, 11:59 am

@15 what matters most is whoever buys a game likes said game regardless of anything else, regardless of sales, fanboyism etc

#17

Blerk
23/02/11, 2:17 pm

Release date confirmed as September 20th in US and Europe, according to AceyBongos.

#18

Blerk
23/02/11, 2:36 pm

Hey, what happened to the other thread?

I’ll say it again, then:
A bit early for the Christmas season, I wonder what they’ve got lined up for that besides Forza?

#19

Darth Murse
23/02/11, 2:37 pm

Ahhhh… Dedicated servers. I may have to start playing this franchise again. WORST host advantage in FPS ever. Liked hearing Cliff say they admit they dropped the ball on Gears 2 MP out of the gate, but eventually fixed it through patches. Bad thing was, most people moved onto COD by the time it was actually “fixed”. Looking forward to this.

#20

Zarckan
23/02/11, 2:55 pm

*yawn*

#21

Dr.Ghettoblaster
23/02/11, 4:00 pm

so i’m behind – what’s the big announcment?

#22

spiderLAW
23/02/11, 4:20 pm

that it finally has a solid ww release date. 9/20/2011

#23

YoungZer0
23/02/11, 4:33 pm

Yawn, people still care about this bland and boring game?