Despite earlier comments regarding the possibility of completely free Gears of War content, some gamers have taken umbrage at the fact that the first map packs will need to be bought.

Despite complaints, Epic has said that its Gears of War map packs would follow a similar path of the bonus multi-player maps released for Halo 2.

"Epic thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to give the maps away for free and Microsoft thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to sell the maps", said Epic vice president Mark Rein.

"So what we've agreed to do is to put these maps on sale at a reasonable price then make them free a few months later. They did this with the original Halo 2 map pack and it was a huge success. Lots of people bought the maps and lots of people downloaded them when they became free. That's what is going to happen and it seems like a fair compromise for both companies and a win-win for Gears players."

Epic also released news that the next map pack will have four multi-player maps, however no price or date was quoted.

>> Link - Official Site/Epic