Here's a rundown of the short-lived spinoff Gears Of War: Exile. Third-person action games went through something of a transformation in the mid-2000s, following the success of Resident Evil 4. This title reinvented the franchise from survival horror to out and out action, and it's over the shoulder perspective soon became standard. Another groundbreaking title from this era was Gears Of War, a sci-fi shooter that made cover shooting a widespread mechanic.
A 2003 shooter called Kill Switch had pioneered many of the same mechanics, but it was the success of Gears Of War that made them popular with players. Soon games like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Dead Space were following the formula set out by both Gears and Resident Evil 4, with cover shooting quickly become a norm. The franchise continued to go from strength to strength too, with sequels like Gears Of War 2 and 3 boasting great sales and reviews. The most recent entry was 2019's Gears 5, which was seen as something of a return to form after a mixed reception to Gears Of War 4.
The success of Gears Of War has seen it spawn other merchandise like book and comic spinoffs. A film adaptation has also been trapped in development hell for many years, with Len Wiseman (Live Free Or Die Hard) once attached to direct. One of the most intriguing - and mysterious - spinoffs from the series would have been Gears Of War: Exile, which first surfaced in 2011, the same year Gears Of War 3 was released.
Gears Of War: Exile is mysterious because very little was revealed about it by Epic, but demo footage showed it was an on-rails shooter for the Kinect device. Players would command their squad through voice commands while blasting/chainsawing the Locust. The demo was a modified version of Gears Of War 2 showing how the basic gameplay would function, but presumably Gears Of War: Exile would have featured a new story.
In 2012 Epic's Cliff Bleszinski (LawBreakers) would state “Let’s just bury the hatchet now. Gears of War: Exile was an unannounced game that I can’t give any details about that has since been cancelled,” which was the last anybody heard of it. In 2013 footage of a game dubbed Gears Of War: Tactics emerged, which was an X-Com-style strategy game that also would have made use of the Kinect. It was also cancelled and it's unknown if Exile or Tactics were the same game.
Maybe more footage from Gears Of War: Exile will someday find its way online, but the project itself is long cancelled. It appears Gears Of War: Tactics has been revived, as an upcoming title called Gears Tactics is also a turn-based strategy game, which is set over a decade before the events of the original game.