Gears Of War developer Epic Games hasn't dated (or even confirmed) the third game in the stop and pop shooter series, but someone else has, pegging the third entry for an April release in 2011.
Now, Edge may not be in an official position to schedule Gears Of War 3, but according to "a trusted US publishing source," April 2011 is when Xbox 360 owners should expect the game. Gears Of War 3 will reportedly be teased next month in some form and more fully revealed at E3.
You know, it makes sense for 2010 to be Gears free.
Epic VP Mark Rein recently told G4TV that his company wouldn't be releasing any games this year. People Can Fly, which Epic owns, has its own game in the works for EA, but that won't be released until the beginning of 2011, a game that may very well be known as Bulletstorm.
Plus, the back half of 2010 is looking incredibly crowded on the Xbox 360 side, with games like Halo: Reach, Fable III, Portal 2 and another Call of Duty getting a lot of the attention, not to mention Microsoft's Project Natal add-on. Giving Gears 3 a little breathing room sounds like someone just making the right call.
And if it is a little later than expected, any Unreal Engine 3-powered jungle environments that we get will just look that much better.