00:08Hey, I'm Rod Ferguson, this is Tyler Bielmann, I'm from The Coalition and we're here to talk about Gears Pop.
00:13Yeah.
00:14So, Gears Pop is a game we announced at E3 as part of our three games, three games, three platforms,
00:19three genres.
00:20And it's really about bringing Gears of War to the mobile space, basically to play Gears anytime, anywhere.
00:25And Tyler, why are we talking about Gears Pop right now?
00:28Well, actually, we're coming up on our soft launch.
00:30And yeah, that means that we're going to put the game out in just a few places, but we figured
00:35that people might start hearing about it.
00:37So we wanted to give everybody kind of an update on what it's all about.
00:40Okay, well, fair.
00:41So what is it?
00:42What is Gears Pop?
00:43It's a mobile game.
00:44It is PvP.
00:45It's what we call bite-sized battles.
00:47So they're just three-minute battles in a battle arena.
00:49And you play out Gears characters, Pops in fact, and they run around and have fun and shoot each other
00:55in the battle arena.
00:56Nice.
00:57And so, but I've kind of heard of these type of genre.
01:00I know this genre exists on mobile.
01:02So what makes this game a Gears game?
01:04Yeah, well, really, when you're thinking about how to make this a Gears game, it comes down to three things.
01:08The first, of course, is that in Gears, the combat is really about the cover, moving through cover, flowing through
01:13cover.
01:13And so we wanted to bring cover into the mobile space.
01:17So this game, your units will push forward.
01:19Certain units will take and claim cover, which creates sort of a territory and control game, which is really interesting
01:25strategically.
01:26Right.
01:26The second thing is it wouldn't be Gears without big explosive battles and big explosive moments in the game.
01:33So there's some stuff in there that is really surprising and changes the scale of the battle quite a bit.
01:37Nice.
01:38And lastly, third is, of course, characters.
01:40Gears is full of amazing characters.
01:41Yeah, and I think the nice thing about this is that we're partnering with Funko around with Gears Pop.
01:46And it was really sort of happened, you know, one of the things we were looking at was like,
01:49how do we make the mobile game a more approachable game, but we want to do it in an authentic
01:53way.
01:54And so you look down at your desk and there's a sort of, you know, Kate Pop and a Marcus
01:57Pop,
01:58and they already feel like they belong in the Gears of War universe, although it's a very different art style.
02:01And so they felt like the right partner with an amazing product, an amazing art set that we could use
02:05in our game.
02:07But when we did the trailer with them, it was like, I see Marcus and a Boomer with Locust Boomer
02:12on the same team.
02:12So what's that about?
02:13Yeah, well, I mean, one of the things you get if you have a shelf full of Pops is, you
02:17know,
02:17different Pops are sitting next to each other.
02:19And we wanted to really express the characters, the Marcuses and the General Roms and the Locusts, in an authentic
02:25way.
02:25But we also want to allow people to mix and match those units together.
02:29So if they come up with a squad composition that they think is dominant or will work really well,
02:34for the first time, you can kind of put those two factions together and see what you can create.
02:38Nice.
02:39Well, that sounds amazing.
02:39So I think we should show everybody how good I am at the game.
02:42And so we should play.
02:43Okay.
02:44Yeah, we can do that.
02:45So why don't we, you know, this is the first look at gameplay ever for Gears Pop.
02:49Yeah, let's actually show the game.
02:50Yeah, let's do it.
02:51All right.
02:52Here we are in the Gears Pop arena.
02:54The object of the game is to play out your units and push forward and take down the outposts
02:58and the leader at the opposite end of the field.
03:01I generally start with this Lancer gear.
03:03It'll move forward and start to take cover.
03:06This being a Gears game, cover's very important.
03:08You'll notice that the blue bar underneath the gear's feet will start to fill up.
03:12If it can completely fill that bar, then boom, I get that piece of cover.
03:17Other units, like this Marcus Phoenix, will move forward and he'll take cover much faster.
03:21That's sort of his special trick.
03:23And you'll notice that my territory has now expanded.
03:27So I can spawn my pins further forward.
03:29Like those wretches that are now running up on my opponent's outpost.
03:34I'm going to try to press this advantage by playing units on both the left and the right
03:38to try to take a little bit more territory.
03:41But Rod's put that boomer right in the middle.
03:43So I'm going to use a Hammer of Dawn.
03:45Now this is my ultimate ability and will charge up over time.
03:48So now I'm going to have to wait a while before I use that again.
03:53That Gnasher drone is sunk in, so I'm going to use a Frag Grenade and take care of that problem.
03:59Meanwhile, my outposts will clear the wretches.
04:05Now my deck is primarily comprised of units with special abilities.
04:09This JD has a Down But Not Out ability.
04:12And my Marcus, as I said, takes cover quickly.
04:16Now I'm going to put down my Kate.
04:18Now Kate's special because she has sort of a Bonsai ability.
04:20She's going to run forward and ignore the enemy units and just start hammering those outposts.
04:26It looks like she's doing plenty of damage, which is great, because if I can take that
04:30outpost down, I'll be ahead in the game by one point.
04:34Looking really good.
04:35Let's see if I can get it.
04:37Okay, excellent.
04:38There's a grinder on the left.
04:40I think I have enough power to put out some additional targets, but he did manage to take
04:43down my outpost.
04:44I reacted a little bit late to that, so I've got to keep throwing things at that grinder.
04:48We're about a minute left, so it's double power, which means that power bar at the bottom
04:52is going to increase even faster and allow me to play units a lot more quickly.
04:57It's a tied game right now.
04:58He's taken one of my outposts, and I've taken one of his.
05:01So really, I'm just going to try to push the advantage on one side or the other.
05:05Okay, so he's played a couple big, tough, expensive Locust units, so I think he's kind
05:10of playing a deck that's really about pushing those monsters forward.
05:13My deck's really about taking territory and the tricks of the different units, so I think
05:19I've got a pretty good matchup here.
05:20I know what to do.
05:22He's putting out a lot of units, and I just lost my territory on the right side.
05:26My strategy is going out the window.
05:28My deck really is about pushing that control of the territory, so I might be in trouble here.
05:33Now, we've got double power.
05:35This is good for him because he can drop big units more quickly, but I can exploit that
05:38too by dropping multiple units faster than he can.
05:40It looks like we're going to run out of regulation time with a score of 1 to 1, and when
05:46that
05:47happens, we enter sudden death, which means that the next person to score an outpost will
05:52win the game.
05:53I am throwing out everything I can, but that grinder is going to take me down.
05:57Oh, I think he got me.
05:59Yeah, that's the end.
06:00Looks like Rod does know a thing or two about Gears of War.
06:03And so, there we go.
06:05As you can see, I clearly dominated the battlefield.
06:07Yes, you totally won that game.
06:09You wouldn't throw a game with me.
06:11I would.
06:13All right, so I'm having fun.
06:14I'm excited.
06:15I love what I'm seeing.
06:16I want to play.
06:17When can I?
06:18Yeah, so we're still in soft launch.
06:19We're perfecting the game, but in 2019, it'll be available for everyone, and it'll be great.
06:23All right, can't wait.
06:24I hope I see you there.
06:25Yes.
06:27I hope I see you there.
06:29I hope I see you there.
06:32I hope I see you there.
06:34I hope I see you there.
06:35I hope I see you there.
