October 30th Playlist Refresh

Today, we’re announcing our Playlist Refresh, which offers a new trimmed down playlist selection to improve your online Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Experience.

We’re making these changes based on a variety of factors – a combination of feedback from fans, ways we can improve online matchmaking, and our own backend data that covers everything from playlist popularity to the number of times maps are skipped. We also wanted to condense our focus on Objective gametypes down to the most popular hill mode - Blitz.

Playlist Refresh

Playlist Refresh

On October 30th 2015, you'll be greeted to a new look collection of playlists for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. These changes are listed below.

Social
Team Deathmatch
Warzone OR Special Event
2v2 Gnasher Execution

Competitive
Execution
Blitz

Competitive is now home exclusively to Execution and Blitz, the former using the slightly varied settings from the ESL eSports Pro League (excluding Friendly Fire). We wanted to make the difference between Social and Competitive experiences clearer, and help our fans choose the kind of experience they want. For modes that no longer appear in Competitive, we’ve bumped their XP up in social playlists to match their old Competitive counterparts.

When there’s no special event, we’ll feature Warzone as a playlist in it's place. Assassination has been removed from playlists and will now appear exclusively as a special event, due to the mode having a low volume of matches played comparative to the other modes. We selected this group of playlists based on a variety of factors, including player population count, to focus our playlist offering and improve the online matchmaking experience for Gears of War fans.

Improving Game Modes

Improving Game Modes

We’ve also modified some of the maps available in our respawn playlists that are not providing optimal experiences in some game modes.

Team Deathmatch
Removed Rooftops, Bullet Marsh and Garden

King of the Hill & Blitz
Remove Rooftops and Bullet Marsh

Return of Special Events

Return of Special Events

We know our fans love special events like Brothers To The End and Lightning Execution, and we’re excited to announce we’ll be featuring Special Events again beginning October 30th with Torque Bow Tag on four of the darker horror-esque maps.

Additionally, play this weekend (Oct 30th at 12pm PDT until Nov 2nd at 12pm PDT) in any playlist to earn the Halloween exclusive “Hallows” skin – it’ll be unlocked for free following the conclusion of the Halloween weekend. See the FAQ below for more details.

Thank you to all of our fans who have supported Gears of War: Ultimate Edition since release, and to the future fans we’ll be welcoming over the rest of the year. Stay tuned for more news on additional special events to come right here at GearsofWar.com, and keep your feedback coming on our official forums.

The Coalition

FAQs

How do I unlock the Hallows weapon skin?
Play at least one multiplayer match in any Social or Competitive playlist between Friday October 30th at 12pm PDT till Monday November 2nd at 12pm PDT to be eligible for the reward.

Why did the Hallows weapon disappear after the weekend? Have I lost my unlock?
Your unlock is safe – we’re enabling the weapon skin for all players over the Halloween weekend to celebrate the event and help indicate you are playing during the unlock eligibility period. Once the event ends, the Hallows weapon skin will temporarily disappear.

When will I receive my permanent access to the Hallows weapon skin?
Eligible players will receive their weapon skin within two weeks of the event close.

Why does the Social playlist description say I’ll earn less XP?
This is a legacy description we are unable to change at this time. Social XP has been raised to match the previous XP rate of the Competitive counterparts to the playlist modes.

Do any playlists currently have Rooftops or Bullet Marsh in them?
Yes - Warzone when a special event is not active. We are planning to ensure all maps are available in our special events where appropriate.

How often will special events occur?
At this time, we are planning a special event every two weekends.

What happens to Leaderboards?
Social will now write to Leaderboards, and retain the current statistics you've earned in the competitive counterparts to each gametype. KOTH and Assassination leaderboards will disappear in-game but your stats are retained - these will be viewable on GearsofWar.com. Please note that while these stats for these modes are viewable online, they will not update after the refresh launches.

Will you be running my favorite special event in the future?
We have a lot of fan favorites already planned, such as Brothers to the End and Shotty Snipes to name a few. Got a specific special event you’d like to see? Let us know in the forums!

Will there be any future playlist refreshes or revisions?
We're always out there listening to our fans, so keep your feedback coming in our forums and over social media. We'll continue to evaluate our playlists based on design decisions, statistical insight and feedback from players.