Clean off your chainsaws–the first batch of new content for Gears of War will be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace early Thursday morning, and will include two new multiplayer maps (Raven Down and Old Bones) and a new video. The content is being sponsored by the Discovery Channel, which will be giving away 2 million Microsoft points at www.readyaimfire.com, which will be online from January 13 to the 14.
Raven Down encompasses combat around a downed Raven Helicopter, where gamers will join Delta Force as they move into the crash site to search for survivors. Old Bones features the Locust Horde overtaking Sera’s Capitaline Museums, and Delta Force’s attempt to recapture them.
During Bill Gates’ CES keynote address last night, it was announced that Gears of War has sold 2.7 million copies in the eight weeks since its release. Robbie Bach of Microsoft said, "That title is now a Halo-like franchise that continues to drive hardware in a very positive way. We think it’s an evergreen property that we’re going to be able to leverage for a long time."
According to a recent report, Gears of War was the fourth best selling game of 2006 with over a million copies sold in the U.S., and an estimated 2+ million worldwide. Now that an exact figure has been revealed by Gates, it’s easy to see how the Xbox 360 led next-gen sales figures during this past Christmas season. Word of mouth and rave reviews of the third-person action game helped to surge 360 sales during the holiday season with over 2 million systems sold.
