It’s 2021, and Gears of War 3 has been released for PlayStation 3. Really. Sort of.
Last year, a long-lost prototype of the Xbox console exclusive running on PS3 came to light, courtesy of self-proclaimed former hacker PixelButts. Eight hours of footage was released showing the build being played, with only a couple of bugs. This footage is still available to view – Epic hasn’t attempted to take it down:
Gears of War 3 PS3 Build May 19 2011 Watch on YouTube
Now, to celebrate 10 years since the build was created, PixelButts has released it onto the internet via archive.org. You can go download it yourself right now, though you’ll need a PS3 devkit to run it on.
Epic Games previously confirmed the internal build was real, though never destined for public release. Instead, it was “a byproduct of Epic’s internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process which utilised both Gears and Unreal Tournament” and “never part of any actual product work for PlayStation 3”.
This week, PixelButts announced the release of the build via Twitter, where he also said he would “not be your tech support” and “not be taking questions” (before answering several further questions).
It’s the 10th anniversary of the Gears of War 3 PS3 data being built, so to celebrate I’m releasing it.
I no longer plan to release prototype game stuff after this, as this was the last one I was sitting on.https://t.co/Tg5TS1mzN2— PixelButts (@PixelButts) May 19, 2021
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“This is an archive of the original data built by Epic Games on May 19th 2011 for Gears of War 3 for PS3 systems,” he wrote. “Originally created during an engine test, and leaked 10 years ago and remained unusable data while circulating between collectors and exchanging hands.