A bit of good news for fans of "Gears of War" floated recently. The upcoming fourth installment in the franchise might make it to game store shelves sooner than fans expected.

According to GameSpot, a recent livestream broadcast from Microsoft revealed that the next installment in the franchise, "Gears of War 4," might launch in fall. Considering that the title had an original targeted release date of "holiday 2016" when it was announced at last year's E3 conference, the new release period is good news to fans of the franchise.

Meanwhile, the industry follower also said that although the new release date is earlier than expected, hardcore fans and "Gears of War" players can still have the chance to play the title even before the targeted fall release, since the beta version of "Gears of War 4" is scheduled to go live this coming spring.

The beta access is currently limited to those who have purchased "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition," noted Destructoid. The industry follower then added that this may still change, and that the developer and publisher might allow access to more players.

Meanwhile, Dual Shockers mentioned that aside from revealing the earlier release date for the title, developer The Coalition also stressed that "Gears of War 4" will showcase an improved gameplay and maps system, at least for the multiplayer feature of the game.

According to the title's lead multiplayer designer Ryan Cleven, the first thing that the studio did was to make sure that developers themselves will be able to play the game as part of its continuing development. Although it might seem trivial, this small detail allowed the developers themselves to gain firsthand information on how players might see the maps and areas, particularly in the multiplayer locations.