Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is shipping with offline, local area network multiplayer support. This is a first for a game on Xbox One, and according to Rod Fergusson, studio head of developer The Coalition, it's a feature that could be including in the upcoming Gears of War 4.

"System link kind of went away with this generation, but we just explained [to Microsoft] the importance of this to us," Fergusson said in an interview with GameSpot regarding LAN support in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. "Competitive players want to be able to go to a hotel ballroom and have an event, and LAN support is an important part of that, so we just pushed on it and we got that exception."

For Gears of War 4, LAN support is something Fergusson sees as a possibility, and it's something he and the studio want to keep pushing to have included. "Because of that fact that we really value the competitive player, and home tournaments, those sorts of things--and LAN is a critical aspect of those," he adds. "We're trying to make it easier to do those sorts of competitive events."

Fergusson also clarified that the game's full title is in fact Gears of War 4, and not just Gears 4 as it was shown at Microsoft's press conference. The shortform title is apparently being used just for the game's E3 2015 branding.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launches August 25 this year on Xbox One, while a beta is available now. Gears of War 4, meanwhile, launches late 2016 on Xbox One.