Gears of War: Judgment is being written by Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter author Tom Bissell and Rob Auten, replacing sci-fi author Karen Traviss who penned the series' third installment.

Epic's franchise has frequently been criticised for the quality of its writing. Dead Space story producer Chuck Beaver called it, "literally the worst writing in games."
Even Gears creator Cliff Bleszinski acknowledged that the series had shifted away from his original vision. "The intent was to make [Gears of War] a lot more Band of Brothers and take it a lot more serious," he said in a previous Eurogamer interview.