Gears Of War Remaster Appears Online, Microsoft Takes Action Against Leakers

The rumors and speculation over whether or not Microsoft are working on a remaster of the Gears of War franchise continue to go around. First there was the rumor that started floating around last month about Splash Damage being involved in a remake of some kind, then ‘Gears of War Ultimate’ popped up on a Brazilian rating board. Then, just a couple of days ago, a handful of screenshots and a couple of video clips apparently leaked on to the internet.

Most sites carrying the video footage have taken it down, but the screenshots (seen just below) still remain, and you can still see a very short multiplayer clip here. The footage was taken in the Canals map from the first Gears of War game, which was then re-released in Gears of War 2.

The problem with this leak is that it’s of a multiplayer match, and multiple gamertags (and in the case of one of the videos, an individual-specific watermark) can be seen, which means Microsoft should know exactly who to ‘thank’ for this leak. And appears they’ve done just that, as the testing company involved in this, VMC, sent out a memo stating that the leakers not only had their Xbox Live accounts revoked, but their entire console was rendered inoperable by Microsoft. Here’s the relevant piece of the memo via Kotaku.

Microsoft also permanently disabled their Xbox LIVE accounts (as well as other suspected accounts present on their Xbox One kits) and temporarily blocked all of their Xbox One privileges – meaning that for a period of time which Microsoft decides on depending on the severity of the offense, their Xbox One is entirely unusable.

If you have alarms going off in your head right now over that last bit, you’re not alone. VMC made it sound like Microsoft have the ability to completely kill a console remotely, rather than just banning it from online services, which temporarily raised all kinds of questions about why this ability exists and in what other scenarios they might use it.

Thankfully, Microsoft followed up on this memo with their own response to Gameinformer, basically saying that the people responsible for the leaks received only a run-of-the-mill network ban.

To be clear, if a console is suspended from Xbox Live for a violation of the Terms of Use, it can still be used offline. Microsoft enforcement action does not result in a console becoming unusable. Suspensions for both consoles and accounts are determined by looking at a number of factors.  To avoid enforcement action including suspension from the service, users should follow the Xbox Live Terms of Use and Code of Conduct.

What’s interesting about this entire fiasco is that the response by VMC and Microsoft seem to completely confirm that the original footage and leaked screens were legitimate. Granted, we already pretty much knew that they were working on some kind of Gears of War remaster, and we’re still not certain the extent of the remaster or if it will include multiple games, but this situation definitely adds fuel to the speculation that we’re going to officially hear something sooner rather than later.

Sources: Gameinformer, Kotaku, Twitter (Wario64), (video)