The Gears of War franchise will be officially smoke-free from Gears 5 and beyond, The Coalition has confirmed.
The news came by way of Variety, which reported that an organisation called Truth Initiative successfully lobbied a smoke-free platform through Turner, the owner of ELeague and the company that holds the rights to Gears Esports broadcasts.
“I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact of smoking. It’s always been important for me to not use smoking as a narrative device, which is why we made the conscious choice to avoid highlighting or glorifying smoking in Gears 5 and throughout the Gears of War Universe moving forward,” The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson said in a statement to the outlet.
Fergusson later took to Twitter to detail his thoughts on the matter, adding that he was responsible from removing a character’s smoking habit between concept art and the retail release of Gears of War 2.
“I’ve been against smoking from the beginning and have worked hard to not make it a part of our franchise. Ever notice that the Dizzy concept art for Gears 2 has a cigarette but the actual character in the game doesn’t? I stopped it,” Fergusson said.
The Coalition’s studio head also shared why the topic is so important to him.
“My dad smoked,” Fergusson added. “He died of a heart attack at age 38. I was 4.”
Gears 5 heads to Windows PC and Xbox One as part of the Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Play Anywhere programs on 10 September. A multiplayer tech test is planned for this week.
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