Gears of War: Ultimate Edition includes all original games via backwards compatibility

With less than a month until release, Microsoft has just announced that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the hit game remastered for the Xbox One, will include the four original Gears titles for free via the Xbox One's upcoming backward compatibility feature. The first four games were all released on the Xbox 360, and consist of Gears of War (the non-Ultimate Edition, obviously) Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, and Gears of War: Judgment. That means players get the entire Gears series with the purchase of only one game.

If you're planning on picking up GoW: Ultimate Edition when it's released on August 25th, there is one requirement you need to be aware of: you need to play Ultimate Edition online through Xbox Live at least once sometime between its release and December 31st, 2015 in order to score the older titles for free.

Once that requirement is met, players are eligible to get the four original Gears games when the backwards compatibility feature launches on the Xbox One this fall. This also means the original Gears games will all support backwards compatibility, so if you already own any of those titles via digital purchase on the Xbox 360 or the actual disc, you'll be set to play them on the Xbox One.

The free original games promotion also extends to purchases of the GoW: Ultimate Edition console bundle. If you're a die-hard Gears fan, getting five games in one seems like a no-brainer. And if this is going to be your first introduction to the series, there's no better deal than this. Plus, you'll be all caught up for 2016's release of Gears of War 4, which Ultimate Edition includes beta access to.

SOURCE Xbox Wire