14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft, as the publisher, and Epic Games, as the developer, have announced that Gears of War 3, their cover-based shooter, now has a confirmed launch date of September 20, with gamers worldwide able to get it at the same time.
Gears of War 3 is being only released for the Xbox 360 home console from Microsoft.
Initially, Gears of War 3 was set to launch during the spring of this year, but late in 2010 Microsoft announced that the game would be delayed for the fall, although it has not specified why the move was made.
It seems that Bungie's decision to quit working on the Halo franchise and collaborate on a whole new game universe with publisher Activision Blizzard put pressure on Microsoft to move one of its biggest Xbox 360 franchises to the very important autumn launch window.
Gears of War 3 depicts events that take place one year and a half after the fall of Jacinto,which players witnessed in the previous game in the franchise and will see series regulars and new faces fight together to ensure the survival of humanity in the face of attacks coming from the Locust, but also from a whole new more capable threat.
Before the launch date, Epic Games has again confirmed that it plans to launch a multiplayer beta for Gears of War 3 but has not confirmed exactly how players will get access to it.
New copies of the People Can Fly first-person shooter Bulletstorm include codes that allow access to be beta but the developers at Epic have confirmed that other ways of getting into the multiplayer testing stage will also be offered.
In the last few months, rumors have appeared that before the launch of Gears of War 3 Epic Games plans to launch a gaming experience based around the same universe that will be played using the Kinect motion control system.