Gears of War 4 is an upcoming third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition, formerly known as Black Tusk Studios, and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One.  The game is set to be released in 2016.  It will be the fifth installment in the Gears of War series and the fourth main installment.  It will be the sequel to Gears of War 3.

During E3 2013, Microsoft Studios vice president Phil Spencer commented on the future of the franchise, saying: "I love the Gears franchise, I think Epic’s done a really nice job building that.  I think there’s an opportunity to spend some time on Gears and on what it means.  It’s a rare franchise that managed to ship four times on the platform - 1, 2, 3 and then Judgment.  I also think it’s also a really interesting time to launch new IP, and that’s something we’re really invested in.  You saw Quantum Break, you saw Sunset Overdrive, you saw Crimson Dragon, you saw games big and small from many different developers.  I think we were counting, and we had eight or nine different nationalities on stage.  It’s a cool opportunity to bring a lot of new content."

On January 27, 2014, Microsoft announced that they had purchased the rights of the franchise from Epic Games, as a new game will be developed by The Coalition for Xbox One.  Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the Gears of War franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise going forward.  On April 1, 2015, Black Tusk developer Jack Felling confirmed that the next Gears of War game will not be available for the Xbox 360 in a response to a question on Twitter, Felling said, "No sorry, it won't be available on the 360 but it will be available for the Xbox One!."