Microsoft revealed today during a presentation at Gamescom in Germany that Gears 5 will include characters from Halo, specifically Halo: Reach.
Gears and Halo are two of Microsoft’s biggest franchises. Both are shooters, but they haven’t had much cross-promotion before. They don’t take place in the same fictional universe, so including characters from one in the other doesn’t make any logical sense, just a fun thing to do for fans (and to hopefully help sales).
Gears 5 is coming out on September 10 for Xbox One and PC. It will include Kat and Emil from Halo: Reach, which launched back in 2010. Both characters will be playable in Gears 5’s cooperative modes, and each will have their own unique abilities.
While Gears 5 is Microsoft’s biggest release for the rest of this year, Halo: Infinite will be the company’s flagship software launch in 2020. It is coming out for Xbox One and will be a launch title for its successor, code-named Project Scarlett.