Gears 5 Xbox Series X Update Lets Players Replace Marcus Fenix with Batista

Gears 5 players are getting a unique feature on November 10th when the game receives its Xbox Series X and Series S optimizations. The game already allows players to play as actor and former pro wrestler Dave Bautista in the multiplayer component as his wrestling persona, Batista, and when the November 10th update releases, you'll be able to play as him in the campaign as well. He'll be available as a stand-in for Marcus Fenix to see how he fits into the Gears 5 team alongside Kat and the others.

A new Gears 5 trailer focused on that new update released this week to show players what they could expect when the new consoles launch. Gears 5's will benefit from the console's power by allowing players to reach up to 120FPS in the Versus multiplayer mode on the Series X and the Series S. You can find Batista there if you unlocked his skin already, and if you head into the campaign, you'll find him there as well.

IGN spoke to The Coalition about Bautista's involvement in Gears 5 and how he's now ended up in the campaign. The developers called it a "natural evolution" to have him in the story mode after fans pushed so hard for him to be included somehow and after he was added to the Versus mode.

"He had his fan campaign on Twitter, vying to be the star in the much talked about movie ideas and things like that, but this is a great way of delivering that to fans," said Zoë Curnoe, principal lead producer on Gears 5. "And of course he was super excited to participate when they did the skin for multiplayer. I think doing this in the campaign was just a natural evolution to say, okay, well the fans and him have said they want Batista as Marcus, so let's actually make it happen."

Bautista re-recorded the lines for Marcus Fenix for the opportunity, so it'll indeed be his voice that you hear in the campaign like an entirely new character instead of just having a new skin.

The alternate campaign character is a unique feature in Gears 5, but the other optimizations mentioned previously for the Series X and Series S will be found in a number of other games as well. Gears 5 is one of 30 confirmed launch games that'll feature these sorts of optimizations with others like Sea of Thieves and Yakuza: Like a Dragon benefitting from upgrades as well when the consoles launch.