If you’ve played Gears of War to death, and have tired with the game because you are just too good, then you might be interested to know that the game is still being worked on, and there is still some downloadable content on the way. Also in the interview, the vice President of Epic, Mr. Rein, has some other interesting information for Unreal Tournament 3.

In the interview with Game Informer, Mark Rein begins talking about the recent announcement of Unreal Tournament 3 on the 360, and why they decided to put that on the system, and also talks about the idea of PC gamers playing 360 gamers.

Game Informer: One of the things you announced today is that you’re bringing Unreal 3 to Xbox 360. Was this something that was always happening, or is this something new?

Mark Rein: I think it was the realization that we might be able to sell a few copies on this PS3. We had a little success on Xbox 360, and we might be able to sell a few copies there.

GI: Was this something that you guys were planning on doing from day one?

Rein: Not necessarily. One of our big concerns was the ability to bring mods to the platform, and it’s still a bit of an open issue, but we’ve had some pretty clear indications that we’ll be able to do it, and we’re pretty excited about that. That was kind of the one thing, we wanted to make sure we’d be able to bring user-created content to the platform before we made a firm commitment to it. Honestly, we view Gears of War as our showcase title for the 360, and we really view UT as our showcase title for the PS3. Now that we shipped Gears, people who are interested in licensing our technology can see we have a mature title that works, it plays really well, it sold great. We’ve always felt that UT was our poster child for PS3, you know getting UT done and up and running and running well would give us the same sort of benefits that Gears has given us on 360. So that was always our focus, and now you’ve obviously seen that we have this ability to potentially sell a lot of copies. There’s a large audience, and it just makes sense to do. I don’t think it’s anything we thought we weren’t going to do–we just want to focus on UT3 on PS3 to start.

GI: Will you launch all three SKUs on the same day?

Rein: To be honest, we don’t really have a SKU plan for it yet, so we don’t really know. I would expect us to bring out a PC demo or beta earlier on than anything else, and whether or not we can ship them all at the same time is just a question of time, and we don’t really know that yet. We have no idea what the order is—that’s more of a game-time decision, right?

GI: Are you shooting for something like Shadowrun, where you can play PC versus 360? Are you shooting for that with UT3?

Rein: I don’t think we’ve made any decisions there yet. It’s something that we definitely have to get up and running and then see if it’s something that we like or not.

GI: What about supporting the achievement system for Live on PC? Are you guys supporting that?

Rein: I don’t know. It’s too early to know that.

Microsoft had the intention of making PC games as compatible with the 360 and Xbox Live as possible, meaning achievements could be gained on either version. If a game like Unreal Tournament were to support this, it would be a huge step in the right direction, and may encourage more developers to do so. Plus there would be more gamers to play with, which can never be a bad thing.

Jumping over to Gears, there is talk of the highly successful 360 game going onto the PC. Again, could we see the achievements being available on the PC? The most interesting part is where he talks about the 360 Gears, where he confirms that an update is on the way, and one we will be seeing very soon.

GI: Any thoughts on bringing Gears over to PC, or are you going to keep it an exclusive on 360?

Rein: We’ve always said that at some point, Gears would come to PC, or could come to PC. We demoed it. The first year at E3 we demoed it, it was on a PC. It’s not a question of if it can run, it’s a question of when’s the right time, and when do we have the right people to do it and is it the right platform for it? So there’s no final decision on that yet. Right now, it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive. If you want to play Gears, go buy a 360.

GI: Congratulations on your success with Gears. You received many nominations for the AIAS awards. Is the Gears team on vacation, or are they thinking about Gears 2?

Rein: No, they’re still working on Gears. You saw that we put one update out, and we’ve got another one coming out another any day now—I’m not exactly sure when. We have another update in the works with a little surprise in it, and we have more downloadable content. We’re still working on making Gears a better game. You’ll have to wait and see what comes from that.

A surprise in the update? The speculation starts here. What could be included in a title update that would be a little surprise? Fixing glitches and hacks isn’t a surprise, and new weapons and maps are downloadable content, so it isn’t that. Perhaps the host name is returning for ranked matches? I’ve no idea, but let us know what you think in the comments section. As for DLC, chances are that will include new maps like the previous one. Any chance of new weapons? Maybe, but don’t hold your breath.

What interview would be complete without mentioning Halo 3? Mark Rein discusses the impact Halo 3 and Gears have, and whether or not they compliment each other.

GI: Do you look at Halo 3 as a complementary franchise or something that you’re competing against?

Rein: We’re a long way from Halo 3 still, so it’s not like we’re releasing them in the same week. They’re both complementary. I mean if Gears helps build the audience for Halo 3, then I hope Halo 3 helps build the audience for Gears. I think a lot of the Halo 3 publicity they did right around the time Gears shipped probably helped convince those stragglers or fence-sitters that, “Oh, there’s Gears of War now, and Lost Planet is coming, and Mass Effect and Halo 3…” I think a rising tide helps rises all the boats. I think, hopefully, Gears of War is just different enough from Halo 3 that if you bought a 360 because you’re a Halo fan you’ll also buy Gears because, “Wow, everybody says it’s great and I want to give it a try and it’s different.” Likewise, I’m sure everybody’s the same with Halo 3. They have a huge built-in audience, and I think that helps everybody on Xbox 360, because people know it’s coming, they’re starting to see little bits of it, the TV commercial was cool. So absolutely, I think Halo 3 really helps everybody on Xbox 360, not just us. I think everybody. It’s just one of those things that you know is coming, the same way Gran Turismo is on PlayStation 3. It’s a classic, you gotta have it, it’s a gotta-buy thing. If that helps you make a decision to buy Gears early or wait until later, we’re happy about that.

The interview is an interesting read, and I encourage everyone to read it. Now we have to wait for the title update for Gears which is coming very soon apparently, which could mean the little surprise he mentions could be revealed this week. Xboxic will let you know when it hits.

Thanks to ps1h1ch for submitting.