Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition Bundle Surprises

With Gears of War Ultimate Edition launching in late August, it was a given that Microsoft would do something special for those who wanted to pick up their Xbox One console and the game in one purchase. Late yesterday , Microsoft confirmed a Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition Bundle that includes Gears of War and a few more extras.

Microsoft announced the new Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition bundle in a post on its Xbox Wire news site today. Costing $349, Microsoft hopes that the Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition bundle will help convince more Xbox 360 owners who are big fans of the franchise already to upgrade. The original Gears of War for Xbox 360 defined high-definition multiplayer gaming when it arrived on the Xbox 360.

Microsoft says that the Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition Bundle will go on sale at “select” retailers beginning August 25th. Exactly what retailers those are is unclear at this point, but it’s reasonable to expect that Amazon and Best Buy are included in that select group of places carrying the bundle. Microsoft’s own retail stores and MicrosoftStore.com will offer the Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition bundle to shoppers on release day too. GameStop is already taking Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition Bundle pre-orders.

Including in the Xbox One Gears of War Ultimate Edition Bundle is an Xbox One console with 500GB of storage. Players don’t get a Kinect sensor for motion gaming, but do get a new Xbox One Wireless Controller in black that has a stereo headset. This is actually on the second bundle to offer the that new headset jack built right into the controller. Kinect for Xbox One can be purchased separately with a free copy of Dance Central Spotlight for $149.99 at just about any retailer.

Microsoft isn’t stuffing a physical copy of Gears of War Ultimate Edition in with this Xbox One bundle. Instead, those who pick it up will get a code that they can redeem over Xbox Live for a free digital download of the game. This allows users to dive in and out of the game without having to put in a disc. Also included is access to next year’s Gears of War 4 Multiplayer beta, a multiplayer skin and a 14 day Xbox Live trial card. Most consoles only come bundled with a few days worth of free Xbox Live. Every Xbox One console comes with a power cable, an HDMI cable to connect to displays and an Xbox One Chat headset for communicating in games and over Xbox Live with friends and family.

Gears of War Ultimate Edition isn’t a new game in the same way Gears of War 4 will be. Instead, Microsoft and its partners painstakingly went back and improved on the Xbox 360 version of Gears of War. This new version is capable of running with a 1080p resolution, the highest most televisions support. Surround sound and frame rate upgrades make it the best looking and sounding version of Gears of War released yet.

Read: Gears of War Ultimate Edition Release: 7 Things to Expect

At launch Gears of War Ultimate Edition will support a huge cache of content. First there’s the single player campaign itself, which has gotten a new paint job. Microsoft says that it’s packaging 5 new chapters of the Gears of War campaign that never made it into the original game for whatever reason. All of the game’s cut-scenes have been remade due to upgrades in computer animation and motion capture technology too.

On its own, Gears of War Ultimate Edition will cost Xbox One owners $39.99 when it launches on August 25th. Both Amazon and GameStop are already taking pre-orders for it.