Future Gears of War Content to be Paid

Contradicting their earlier promise that they would offer free content for Gears of War, Epic Games’ Mark Rein and Tim Sweeney dropped the bomb that upcoming map packs for the shooter won’t be free… at first.

As expected, fans were outraged. To quell the fire, Rein responded to fans: “Epic thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to give the maps away for free and Microsoft thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to sell the maps. So what we’ve agreed to do is to put these maps on sale at a reasonable price then make them free a few months later,” he said, referring to the success of a similar strategy taken with Halo 2. “Why does Epic not have control over this even though we created this content on our own time and our own dime? Quite frankly Xbox Live Marketplace isn’t our store. It’s Microsoft’s store. Like any retailer they have the right to figure out what goes on the shelves of their store and what price they sell it at.”

He also said that the next map pack will feature four multiplayer maps, though he was unable to offer any price or release date.