As revealed by StoryLab Productions
As 343 Industries is to Halo, The Coalition is to Gears of War. That is to say: These are the developers who are trusted to be the primary gatekeepers to Xbox’s most important properties. Those franchises are so ingrained in the studio’s reason for existence that each is actually named for something from their respective in-game universe — 343 Industries for 343 Guilty Spark and The Coalition for The Coalition of Ordered Governments.
That’s why it strikes as somewhat noteworthy that The Coalition is apparently involving itself in some sort of new property, which we’ve learned from an entirely different company. An entry on StoryLab Productions’ Projects page lists “New IP with The Coalition Studios” as one of the games it’s working on. There are no other details, just that it’s something new and that it’s with the Gears of War team.
A quick look at StoryLab’s completed projects paints the picture that it’s also a Gears of War team. Apart from creating a couple of films, StoryLab’s games-related work is restricted to acting as support on Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Gears of War 4.
These are the kind of things that get announced on their own timelines, so we’re not expecting to learn much more until an official reveal. But, it is important to remember that The Coalition is a subsidiary of Microsoft, so this is almost certainly going to be considered Xbox first-party and published by Microsoft Studios.
Also, there’s no real guessing as to how big or small this new property might be. The Gears of War studio is almost definitely staying mainly focused on Gears of War stuff. The Coalition’s involvement could be super tangential with just a few folks dedicating their attention toward it. However, hearing that The Coalition is involved with a new property immediately brings back memories of the developer’s time as Black Tusk when it was working on a new game. That was shelved and Black Tusk was renamed something more Gears-y. Maybe, fingers crossed here, this is a revival.
Projects [StoryLab Productions via reddit]
