The game to end all games is finally up for pre-order. That's right, Gears POP!, the mash-up of Gears Of War and Funko POP statuettes everyone was asking for, now has a pre-order page up on iOS and the Google Play Store. The game is free-to-play with microtransactions, so we're not exactly sure what a pre-order does. What we do know is that it is allegedly coming out soon, so you can finally stop playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Madden NFL 20 and be a real gamer.
Gears POP!, for you uncultured swine who haven't been following every shred of news on this game, is a multiplayer mobile take on the Gears of War characters. As the name implies, these characters are rendered in the style of the popular POP! vinyl figures. The gameplay, according to the official website, consists of real-time arena battles. Players pit their collection of POP! Gears characters against one another. As you can probably guess, new upgrades and characters will be collected via gameplay or by paying for them.
While Gears POP! is available for pre-order now, the website FAQ mentions a soft launch. Further digging shows that the soft launch is already underway, with the devs already making balance changes. It seems some people are already playing. The Apple App Store, meanwhile, suggests a September 2nd launch date. So it seems us unchosen plebeians must wait in agony until at least September 2nd to get our hands on this game.
There is one ray of hope, however. Even if you're not part of the soft launch, you can still reap rewards by redeeming codes included with actual Gears of War POP! figures. Newer figures include a download code in their box that will give you rewards in Gears POP!. You can redeem them now at https://microsoft.com/redeem. This may not entirely replace being able to pop into battle, but it will give you an edge when you finally start playing.
Take heart friends, Gears POP! is almost upon us. Oh yeah, and there's that other Gears game on September 10th.