Video Games Today

Wondering when your favorite chainsaw wielding friends will be returning? Well, we might have a clue. According to "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", EPIC Games' game developer Cliff Bleszinski will be appearing this Thursday night to announce "his next game". Could this be Gears of War 3, or is this bogus? Hit the jump to find out!

First, let's start out with a quote from the Kotaku article on this appearance on "Late Night":

The host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writes that the design director for popular Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War will be on his show next week to debut his next game.

Game developer Cliff Bleszinski, who worked on both Gears of War and Gears of War 2, has not yet talked about when the final game in the trilogy will hit the Xbox 360. And it may not be Gears of War 3 that Bleszinski will be talking about.

Reached for comment this evening, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon producer Gavin Purcell told Kotaku that Bleszinski's appearance will include a chat with the show's host. He declined to say what game they would be talking about, but said it is very exciting.

In addition, we spotted this on Jimmy's twitter:

Game designer Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) debuts his new game on Late Night next Thur. Set your TiVos! And your Xboxes.

This could spark some interest? Notice how Fallon specified "Xboxes", and how Gears of War has been an Xbox Exclusive game thus far. Now, we'd like to mention that it seems only natural that Bleszinski's next game is Gears of War 3, because of the current Microsoft release schedule. Normally, Microsoft likes to spread out it's exclusive games, and have one major one a year. Here's how it's went so far:

• November 7th, 2006 - Gears of War
• September 25th, 2007 - Halo 3
• November 7th, 2008 - Gears of War 2
• September 22nd, 2009 - Halo 3: ODST
• -[?]-, 2010 - Gears of War 3?
  

So, you see how it makes sense to release Gears 3 this year, maybe on November 7th like the other two. One problem, Halo: Reach. Does it seem likely that Microsoft would release a Halo title, and a Gears of War title in the same year, or even in Q4 together? Very unlikely.

On to evidence #2. Edge Online reported in March that EPIC would release a trailer for Gears 3 on April 8th. April 8th? Yes, that is correct. That is the night CliffyB is expected to be on Jimmy Fallon. Interesting?

Well, Edge also continues to say that "Gears Of War 3 Releasing April 2011", and:

We understand that the game could be completed as early as this year, but that Microsoft is keen to release it during a different window to Halo: Reach – rumoured to be launching in September 2010 – and Natal, which is set to arrive this holiday.

“Microsoft’s keen to avoid a clash with Halo: Reach and wants Natal to own Christmas. That’s why we won’t be seeing Gears Of War 3 until next year, but expect a major marketing push ahead of its release,” said our source.

So now this is starting to make sense, to avoid the Halo and Gears collision in Q4 2010 (Like we described above). This evidence is also supported by what EPIC's Vice-President, Mark Rein, had to say to G4TV:

"We don't have any games coming out in 2010," said Rein, "so from a games standpoint, it's more about our customers' games, right? Already this year we've seen some pretty great games this year...so that'll be kinda cool."

So, to us, it seems like Gears 3 will have to wait until 2011 to make it's bloody debut. Although, these are just rumors. Don't take all of this like it's confirmed. We are just giving you the information out there, you make your own conclusions! But just in case, set your calenders for April 11th 2011!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew