Although many gamers were excited about the prospect of being able to unlock Gears of War 3 material from playing previously released Epic Games titles, unfortunately the company had to pull the plug on the project. Gears 3 design director Cliff Bleszinski had previously tweeted, “Look for special unlocks in Gears 3 for those of you who have played other Epic games such as Shadow Complex, UT3, Gears, and Bulletstorm.” As tweeted by Gears 3 lead gameplay programmer Joe Graf, there will be no bonus material due to a “tech problem caused by biz.”
OXM postulates it has to do with a restriction placed on Xbox Live data which allows companies to get your gamercard info and avatar, but the server cannot link information from different video game titles together. Hypothetically, let’s say you were playing Shadow Complex and received an achievement for Gears of War 3 that would have given you a special weapon. Xbox Live can’t comprehend that title giving you additional content for a different game.
I admit that would have been pretty awesome and add replay value to those older games. The good news: Graf confirmed the restriction didn’t block additional Gears 3 material within the games under the Gears franchise, so all the unlocks that were supposed to be for the other titles will be transfered to the other Gears games.
More on TIME.com:
Epic Games President Talks “Bulletstorm,” “Gear of War 3” Multiplayer Beta