There's no doubt that many video game fans would consider the forthcoming shooter Gears of War 5 as one of the most anticipated games for 2019, with the title supposedly scheduled to launch later on this year for PC and Xbox One. Now, The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson has taken to his personal Instagram account to provide fans with a cryptic tease in regards to a secret new feature that could potentially be in the game.

According to the Instagram post, Fergusson recently stated that he got the chance to do something which he “never had the chance to do on a Gears of War game before”, but he stopped short of revealing exactly what that might be. While it's currently unclear as to what Gears of War 5 fans should expect out of the supposed feature, The Coalition studio head provided an image alongside his statement that gamers will likely be poring over in an attempt to decode.

The picture in question presents the number 73 next to the number 3, which has led some Gears of War fans to speculate that the numbers signify a player counter of some kind attached to a battle royale mode for the fifth numbered entry in the series. Something similar has been surmised before, with a rumor that circulated prior to E3 2018 having insinuated that The Coalition would announce a Gears of War Battle Royale title at the annual expo. This never came to pass, so perhaps the battle royale feature has been saved as a mode for GoW5.

Whatever Fergusson has planned in relation to this secret new feature that's potentially linked to Gears of War 5, it wouldn't be the first instance of The Coalition sharing details in regards to fresh features for the sequel. As it so happens, the studio officially revealed a new character a while back named “Fahz Chutani” who will come equipped with a new Lancer variant in the followup, and the company also teased Gears of War 5 will have a new enemy type called the Warden.

Of course, new characters, new weapons, and new enemy types are typically standard fare for sequels, so it will be interesting to see what exactly Fergusson is referring to with the undisclosed content that could come to Gears of War 5. Microsoft has previously stated it will be holding a big E3 2019 press conference this year, so perhaps we will learn more about what Fergusson is teasing at this year's showcase, and maybe we will even get a concrete release date, too.

Gears of War 5 is currently scheduled to release at some point in 2019 for PC and Xbox One.

Source: Instagram (via GamingBolt)