Gears Fastest Selling Xbox Game Ever

And Epic talks about upcoming downloadble content too.

It was six weeks ago that Gears of War made its worldwide debut and in that time the game has continued to gain momentum, culminating this week in yet another record for the Epic shooter.

Gears of War has sold more than 2 million copies now, making it not only the fastest-selling next-gen game of the year but also the fastest-selling Xbox-exclusive game ever. Industry analyst NPD Group also recently crowned the game as the top seller for November in the US, with more than a million units sold there since the 7 November launch.

"We've always held high hopes for Gears of War, but we never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response from critics and gamers all over the world," said Epic's Michael Capps. "I can't describe how stoked our team is right now. Our fans can absolutely count on Epic to keep delivering new gameplay through Xbox Live."

That downloadable content Capps mentioned could well turn out to be free, too, bucking the trend of publishers charging for extra content.

Asked about the downloadable content, Capps said recently: "We always take care of our customers, we always give them stuff for free, and we're going to keep doing that forever. That's how we do it, this is Epic."

Epic hasn't said yet what form that content will take, but Cliff Bleszinski told Kikizo that the game has hooks for more multiplayer levels.

It's a natural extension for a game that is pulling gamers online at an impressive rate. Gears of War is the top game on Xbox Live at the moment, and according to Microsoft daily registrations for the pay-to-play Gold service are up by 50 per cent since it debuted.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo