Somebody at Microsoft appears to have flicked a switch a little early, with an advertisement appearing on the Xbox 360 dashboard tonight for Gears of War 3.

There's the trademark Gears of War logo, and a tagline that reads "The epic story concludes April 2011".

To quote: The ad appears to have jumped the proverbial gun, with the official reveal of the game not expected to have taken place until an appearance from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski on the Jimmy Fallon show on Monday night.

He of course was supposed to have been on the show, well, last night, but his appearance was pulled at the last minute. Guess somebody forgot to pass that onto the Xbox 360's ad team!

Despite the lack of an official reveal, it's already been rumoured that the third game in the Xbox 360 shooter series will feature franchise firsts like like underwater combat and mech suits.

XBox 360 Dashboard Ad Reveals Gears Of War 3 Hits in April 2011

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