Gears 5 Head Further Clarifies Smoking "Censorship"

Gears 5 made headlines recently when it was revealed that there wouldn’t be any smoking [...]

Gears 5 made headlines recently when it was revealed that there wouldn't be any smoking references in the game. Rod Fergusson, the studio head of the Gears of War developer The Coalition, would later clarify this stance against smoking by saying that he has always been against smoking in the games long before Gears 5 was in development. Fergusson elaborated on the reasoning behind removing smoking from this game and said he has "worked hard to not make it a part of our franchise" and will continue to do so in the future.

In Fergusson's initial statements which were shared with Variety, the studio head said he'd "seen firsthand the devastating impact of smoking." He also confirmed that there would be no "highlighting or glorifying" of smoking in Gears 5 or the rest of the Gears universe onward. This was regarded by some to be an act of censorship, a stripping away of smoking references in Gears 5 based on Fergusson's and The Coalition's views. Fergusson has since offered more details about the situation and said there was nothing to censor because smoking was never in the game to begin with.

"Just to clarify, I've always been anti-smoking and have pushed back on having it in Gears since day 1," Fergusson said in response to one story about the smoking situation in Gears 5. "There was no smoking to remove from Gears 4 or 5 because there never was any smoking to begin with. And as long as I'm in control, there never will be. Sorry for the confusion."

A similar response in another tweet referenced Gears of War 2 where Dizzy had a cigarette in concept art but didn't actually have one in the game itself.

"To be fair, this isn't entirely accurate," Fergusson said. "I've been against smoking from the beginning and have worked hard to not make it a part of our franchise. Ever notice that the Dizzy concept art for Gears 2 has a cigarette but the actual character in the game doesn't? I stopped it."

Fergusson said elsewhere on Twitter that he lost friends to lung cancer and that his father was a smoker before dying from a heart attack at an early age.

Gears 5 is scheduled to be released for the Xbox One and PC platforms on September 10th.

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