As part of the Gears of War Ultimate Edition all owners were promised codes for Gears of War along with Gears 2, 3 and Judgment via the backward compatibility program. Initially said to be going out after December 1st by Microsoft, many preview members have been receiving their codes early.
Those who purchased the Ultimate Edition, myself included, began receiving the codes yesterday afternoon via Xbox Live Messages. If you're away from your console, be sure to enable notifications via the SmartGlass app to be alerted when the codes come through. They are being sent out in two messages with Gears of War and Gears of War 2 in one message and Gears 3 / Judgment in the second.
As long as you play Gears of War Ultimate Edition before the end of the year you'll receive access to the games so there is still time to play. The Ultimate Edition is a remastered version of the original Gears of War so you'll end up with essentially two versions of the same game. Also good, even if you owned the original versions of the games and have returned the disc, you won't have to to track them down in order to play via the backward compatibility program with the provided code.
Another benefit to the Ultimate Edition is guaranteed access to the Gears 4 beta so long you fire up the game prior to March of 2016 as well. If you haven't picked up the Ultimate Edition yet, be sure to as the amount of content included with five games and all new multiplayer for $39.99 is a tremendous deal.
