Talking at the Games Convention 2007, Epic president Mike Capps talked about some of their older projects
mentioning that
Gears of War's multiplayer almost didn't make it into the game. Leading into E3 2006, Capps said that he
"was going to cut multiplayer from Gears because I thought it wasn't coming together fast enough". Things were so far behind in his mind that he even pondered the idea of scrapping the whole thing. But his less than enthusiastic attitude towards
GoW's multiplayer chances drove the dev team into high gear (no pun intended), where they ultimately finished it and impressed the Capp'ster and amazed everyone at E3.
Being huge
Gears fans we couldn't imagine not experiencing the crazy fun multiplayer the game offers. Yeah, it was rushed. Yeh, it isn't perfect. But pick it up, play for a few hours and you'll soon realize that
Gears' multiplayer is a unique blend of some of the most successful ingredients used in other shooters. Thank you committed multiplayer developers, thanks for making our
Gears so special.
{ Oct 29th 2007 at 12:00PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DjDATZ @ Oct 29th 2007 12:12PM
Don't you mean YOUR Gears? :P LOL
hehehehehe... :P
Oh...Dusty...hope you liked that email I sent you this morning. PLEASE make a posting about it...I know everyone that listens to the fancast will have a good laugh out of it. :P OR BETTER YET..Read it on the fancast. :P
Triforceowner @ Oct 29th 2007 12:14PM
Yeah, the multiplayer in Gears is strange, because you can tell it is incomplete, but what is there is really fun.
dunnypop @ Oct 29th 2007 12:16PM
if the multiplayer didn't come out, the game wouldn't have been such a success. slowly dusting off the game to play some multiplayer.
Mordeux @ Oct 29th 2007 12:19PM
I had a few achievements to finish up for Gears' campaign. So I started up a game last night and invited a friend to play along. Wow. I had completely forgotten how cool this game really is. The multiplayer stuff is great fun as always, but getting a friend together for the insane campaign has yet to be beaten.
4 Player co-op in Halo 3 is fun. 2 player co-op in Gears, demanding teamwork, is uber fun.
Even though there are TONS of great games out currently, this one still holds up extremely well.
Tony @ Oct 29th 2007 12:24PM
Honestly, I can't even imagine the game doing as well as it did without that component. It certainly wouldn't have been as good of a value.
baby sea tuna @ Oct 29th 2007 1:19PM
"Honestly, I can't even imagine the game doing as well as it did without that component. It certainly wouldn't have been as good of a value."
What's worse is that it would have actually given creedence to the "have fun playing a game that's only 8 hours long!" BS that the Sony Defense Force kept parroting when Gears first dropped.
lharmon @ Oct 29th 2007 1:22PM
Umm... Gears of whaaaa? Halo 3? Hmmm? hahaha! Oh how I miss Gears! I heard only the professionals are still playing it! I am getting in on that stuff tonight.
Van Faulk @ Oct 29th 2007 1:39PM
"What's worse is that it would have actually given creedence to the "have fun playing a game that's only 8 hours long!" BS that the Sony Defense Force kept parroting when Gears first dropped."
Whihc is funny, because that about as long as any game on the ps3 lasts...and those don't have multiplay.
erivera3 @ Oct 29th 2007 4:03PM
The game was fun for a month, then you realize you are playing the exact same thing over and over and over again. No variability, all small sided team slayer matches that inevitably lead to boredom. The campaign was fun to play cooperatively, but Halo 3's 4 person coop mode is incredibly more fun especially with vehicular combat being a huge factor.
Hopefully Gears 2 expands the multiplayer aspect big time.
Brave @ Oct 29th 2007 4:35PM
it should have been cut. The multiplayer was so horrid
fretster @ Oct 29th 2007 7:41PM
Kinda curious what they were planning on selling if there was no multi player (does that mean no co-op too?). The campaign itself is great fun; but terribly short. I couldn't imagine anyone willing to buy the game for its single player experience alone as there is simply not enough there to justify $60...
MDJ2010 @ Oct 29th 2007 9:16PM
I still play gears multiplayer all the time, even sine the releases of Halo 3, Orange Box, etc.. But imagine how good the multiplayer on Gears 2 will be.
mike @ Oct 30th 2007 4:44AM
This confirms what I believed all along, that multiplayer was almost an afterthought, and could of been so much more. Yet it was still phenominal to play. This is why I look forward to a gears of war 2 so badly. It has the potential to have the greatest multiplayer of all time if they focus on it highly from the start.
AS fun as GOW was, It would be alot better had it had more game modes, more options, better ranked matchmaking system (The custom games system was perfect, better then halo 3s anyway). I would also like to see a max player count of 12. A 6v6 match with new modes like CTF would be great.
Man I love gears. And to think I didnt know anything about it tell I saw my friend playing it on my friends list and he was bugging me to buy it. I finally went and bought it to shut him up and loved the game.