Acclaimed gaming journalist Destin Legarie recently spoke with the developers of Gears of War: E-Day about behind-the-scenes development, story elements, audience expectations, and more.

During this conversation, Destin asked the developers how they felt about Gears of War: E-Day being an Xbox console exclusive title.

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The developers responded by saying that they were "proud" to be one of Xbox's pillar titles, "We feel great that they feel great because Gears is like part of Xbox's DNA. It's woven into it. And at The Coalition, we feel honored to have Gears and be the ones bringing that legacy forward."

The developers mentioned they know Xbox means so much to a lot of people and that they're proud to be one of Xbox's main console-exclusive titles, filling that role again with Gears of War: E-Day.

RELATED: Gears of War: E-Day review

Of course, this isn't full exclusivity, as the game is still available on Steam for PC, as has been tradition for Xbox for many years now. As of writing, Gears of War: E-Day has achieved its highest franchise concurrency figures on Steam at around 20,000 users in the early access period, and has become the top-selling Steam game in the United States ahead of its official October 6, 2026 launch. The game is also of course available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, where I suspect many will be opting to play over an out-right purchase.

Will Xbox exclusivity pay off for Gears of War: E-Day?

Personally, while I prefer games being available on any platform (especially these days when people can't afford to buy every console at once), I can't deny the power exclusivity brings to a console and a game series' brand.

For example, I bought a Nintendo Switch many years ago just to play Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, simply because I knew it wasn't going to be made available on any other console.

So I'm guessing at least some will have the same sentiment for Gears of War: E-Day, which will ultimately be beneficial for Xbox in the long run. Having exclusives will give Xbox its own unique identity and entice console players to play their games not found anywhere else (besides Windows PC, which is also a part of the Xbox ecosystem).

But this is all speculation on my end. Only time will tell if this console-exclusivity strategy pays off financially for Gears of War: E-Day when it leaves early access and launches for the general public on October 6, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Windows PC (all with Xbox Play Anywhere support).

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Gears of War: E-Day has finally launched on Xbox Series X|S and PC via early access for players who pre-ordered the Premium Edition.

While the rest of the world waits for its public release on October 6, 2026, players can look up whether Gears of War: E-Day is up their alley by checking the mountain of critic reviews now available online.

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Sure enough, critics are absolutely adoring this epic prequel to the iconic Gears of War series, as it's scoring high ratings of 88 on Metacritic and 87 on OpenCritic.

Here's what some of the top reviews had to say about this new entry in Xbox's flagship shooter franchise.

Note that all these reviews only cover the single-player campaign, as the multiplayer modes were unavailable to test during the review period.

Gears of War: E-Day Reviews

• IGN (9/10): "E-Day pulls off the tightrope act of giving us a heartfelt prequel with strong characters even when we know how it ends. On a more mechanical level, it also evolves the enemies, weapons, and combat you’d expect to deliver a Gears of War campaign that stands toe-to-toe with any of the others."
• GameSpot (7/10): "For better or worse, E-Day is distinctly Gears, and I had a good time with it, even if the story is disappointing and the open areas are fairly dull. But that’s all it is: a good game, propped up by combat that hasn’t changed all that much over the past 20 years. That’s enough to skate by, but I wish Gears of War would dig deeper."
• VGC (4/5): "Gears of War E-Day's campaign offers balls-to-the-wall action and rarely lets up, but that means the story takes more of a back seat than I'd like. It's good that time is given to the backstories of new protagonists Mags and Lucas, but given that the game is literally the playable Marcus and Dom backstory fans have been waiting decades to see, more time could have been spent on their relationship. In terms of pure gunplay, however, very little beats it this year."
• GamingBolt (9/10): "It stumbles sometimes with its story, but thanks to new and improved movement mechanics, Gears of War: E-Day ends up delivering some of the tightest combat and one of the series’ most excellently paced campaigns in a long, long time."
• Voxel (90/100): "Gears of War: E-Day hits the mark by getting the basics right: embracing its identity as a Gears of War game and elevating the strengths inherent to the series. The game doesn't revolutionize the genre, but it delivers a fun gameplay experience featuring a cinematic narrative and local multiplayer support."

Gears of War: E-Day returns to the series' roots while having some odd, out-of-place open-world elements.

Overall, it seems the general sentiment around Gears of War: E-Day is that it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but returns to the series' roots with a solid, harrowing war story while refining the core gameplay loop that made Gears of War the household name it is today to great effect.

However, our own Jez Corden was more critical in his review-in-progress article on Gears of War: E-Day. While Jez praised the game's gorgeous visuals, stunning performance, and solid gunplay, he felt like let down by the game's poorly designed open-world-lite elements that break the game's pacing and uninteresting, damage-spongy boss fights.

The real make-or-break point for Gears of War: E-Day, to me, will be its PvP Versus Modes and its much-anticipated PvE Horde Siege mode, where you will be pitted against dozens of Locust enemies and boss monsters at once with 12 players.

If The Coalition can nail the gameplay of its multiplayer modes and its post-launch content, people will be sticking around for Gears of War: E-Day long after they beat the campaign. I know I'll be playing Gears of War: E-Day's Horde Siege mode over Grand Theft Auto 6 any day.

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Today's the day: Gears of War: E-Day, the most anticipated Xbox exclusive in years, has launched in early access for players who pre-ordered the Premium Edition of the game. Earlier, Jez Corden called it "gorgeous but undeniably messy" in our review-in-progress, looking forward to future content additions.

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Still, to celebrate this momentous occasion, Gears of War: E-Day's developers, The Coalition, have released an extensive blog post detailing their plans for updating the game's multiplayer content, balance changes, and more.

Here's what you can expect from Gears of War: E-Day's post-launch updates.

Gears of War: E-Day Season 1

First off, The Coalition states that Season 1 of Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer content, titled Season 1: Emergence, will be running from today all the way up to December 1, 2026.

Season 1 will include all the game's launch maps, games, cosmetics, and three limited-time events called Halloween, 20 Years of Gears, and Thanksgibbing. Each event will last for two weeks and will feature a Versus Event mode, a Horde Siege Event mission, and exclusive, limited-time rewards.

Additionally, Season 1 will include:

• Ranked: Versus Ranked will officially launch one week after launch on October 13, giving players crucial time to get up-to-speed with all our maps, modes and sandbox before jumping into competitive.  
• Weekly Challenges: The weekly challenges Premium Edition owners receive on October 1 are the same challenges all players will receive at launch on October 6, weekly challenges will then refresh on October 13.
• Shop: Shop offers will rotate every Tuesday. Be sure to check every week for free featured gifts.
• Never Fight Alone Charity Bundle: 100% of net revenue of the Never Fight Alone Year 5 bundle, which includes an exclusive skin and weapon skin set, and the Never Fight Alone Legacy set, goes to our partner Crisis Text Line in our mission to prevent suicide.
• Promotional Items: Cosmetic items available exclusively through limited time partnerships will become available in the Barracks for Coins and Iron after the partnership exclusivity term lapses. 
• Gears of War: Reloaded Rewards: To celebrate the release of the original Gears of War 20 years ago, we’re offering exclusive rewards to commemorate players’ engagement with Gears of War: Reloaded. 
• Fire and Fenix Pose: Complete the “Prison Breakout” XBOX Achievement in Gears of War: Reloaded.
• Old Guard Medal & “Locked n’ Reloaded” Title: Complete the “Re-Up” XBOX Achievement in Gears of War: Reloaded.

Gears of War: E-Day Season 2 and beyond

Season 2: Legacy will begin at a later date after Season 1 and will feature content themed around the Gears of War franchise's 20th anniversary. The Coalition has also prepared a birthday gift for players to open on November 7, the day when the original Gears of War launched two decades ago.

Additionally, The Coalition has announced that Season 2 will include a Dead Serious Achievement. Any players who obtain it will be rewarded with exclusive cosmetics like a Medal, a Player Title, a Banner, an Emblem, an Icon, and a Legendary Character skin.

Lastly, Gears of War: E-Day has been confirmed to receive at least five post-launch seasons. The names of future seasons after Season 2 are:

• Season 3: Infiltration
• Season 4: Pendulum
• Season 5: Devotion

Gears of War: E-Day Multiplayer Balance changes

Moving on from seasonal content, The Coalition then lays out its plan for updating Gears of War: E-Day's gameplay based on feedback from the multiplayer betas.

Their first move is to change the Gnasher, Gears of War's iconic shotgun that is regarded as one of the best weapons to use in PvP and PvE content throughout the whole franchise.

The developers noticed that during Gears 2 to 5, firing the Gnasher from the hip has often resulted in some shots missing when they clearly should've hit the target. So, The Coalition has decided to finally fix that by introducing a new hybrid muzzle and camera-oriented shooting mechanic.

This means that when you fire the Gnasher, the game will check both the camera and muzzle shots and apply whichever angle is better suited for the shot, which should (hopefully) result in more accurate hits.

Next up, The Coalition states that iconic gameplay features from past Gears of War titles, like Meat Shields, Chainsaw Duels, select fan-favorite weapons, Private Lobbies, and Leaderboards, are being considered to be added to Gears of War: E-Day in post-launch updates or the next game.

Right now, the developers are focusing on making sure Gears of War: E-Day has the most stable launch experience possible.

Finally, The Coalition has laid out a series of patch notes for Gears of War: E-Day's early access launch, which include bug fixes, balance adjustments, Quality-of-life improvements, and more:

• Tuning:
  • Weapon Tuning: 
    • Adjusted Prototype Lancer damage to a value in-between Beta weekend 1 and 2
    • Reduced Lancer Mk1 damage
    • Reduced Vulcan damage
    • Increased Hammerburst damage 
    • Increased damage of the Gnasher while ADS at range
    • Improved Gnasher hipfire consistency
    • Reduced rate of fire for the Snub
    • Reduced the Gut-Puncher spare ammo amount
  • Movement & Cover Tuning: 
    • Improved strafe movement responsiveness
    • Adjustments to cover enter speed and distance of cover-enter cancel
    • Reduced Cover Slip speed
    • Reduced Slide distance
  • Horde Siege Tuning:
    • Adjustment of brightness and opacity of Energy icons
    • Adjusted the difficulty of Repair objectives 
    • Decreased the health threshold at which a Boomer, Flayer, or Grinder can be executed with a Prototype Lancer
    • Reduced Weapon Part Rewards for participation in invasions
    • Reduced Weapon Part Rewards for Weapon Part Stockpiles
    • Increased the difficulty of all Invasions
    • Increased the difficulty of Commander and Allfather difficulties
    • Adjusted the Medic’s stim duration
    • Increased equipment costs
    • Reduced the impact of some Squad Perks
    • Increased the Energy cost of Squad Perks
  • Versus Tuning: 
    • Reduced the wave respawn time
    • Reduced frequency of trading to feel more fair and consistent
    • Adjusted Scoring in Demolition 
    • Adjusted Scoring in Crucible
• Bug Fixes: 
  • Across PC, XBOX and handhelds, we made numerous improvements to stability, performance and optimization across applicable hardware configurations
  • On PC, we addressed a bug causing graphics settings to reset between launches
  • Made adjustments to prevent macro abuse of semi-automatic weapons
  • On PC, we addressed an issue causing missing VFX on explosions when set to Low quality settings
  • On “Legacy” control settings, fixed an issue causing an inconsistent Sprint release delay
  • On PC, fixed an issue causing additional input delay when playing on mouse and keyboard
  • On PC, fixed an issue causing mouse & keyboard lighting effects to not display properly
  • In Horde Siege, fixed an issue causing Tickers not to be properly flung when kicked
  • In Horde Siege, fixed an issue causing blast charges delivered during the Corpser Invasion Event to not register
  • Fixed an issue allowing players to shoot enemies not in front of their barrel when aiming down sights
  • Fixed an issue causing versus ranked or social players to get stuck at the “Waiting for Other Players” screen
  • Fixed an issue causing destructible assets to ‘stick’ to players
  • Fixed an issue where Marksman UAV visual effect might persist
  • Improved the reliability of starting objectives in Horde Siege
  • Improved the reliability of switching which squadmate you are spectating when cog tagged in Horde Siege
  • Fixed an issue where Tickers were immune to Gorehooks
  • Fixed an issue allowing more than four squad members in Versus
  • Fixed an issue where abandoned turrets could not be interacted with
  • Fixed visual issues with ranking up from Onyx 3
  • Fixed an issue where boss health bars and locators could scale incorrectly
  • Fixed multiple issues where specific enemies may not be able to path at certain objectives
  • Fixed multiple issues that would prevent objectives from completing in Horde Siege
  • Fixed multiple inconsistencies and interaction errors in the Horde Siege lobby and Barracks
  • Fixed multiple scoring inconsistencies and errors
  • Fixed multiple matchmaking errors and timeouts
  • Fixed an issue where Mortar strike vfx could appear without cause
  • Fixed an issue where TDM matches would end too early
• QoL & Feedback: 
  • On all platforms, we added an FOV slider 
  • On all platforms, we improved HDR calibration, made UI paper-white adjustment independent
  • On all platforms, we added the ability to disable Chromatic Aberration
  • On all platforms, we added the ability to disable Film Grain 
  • On PC, Max FPS can be set to 30, 60, 90, 120, 144, 240, or Unlimited 
  • On PC, setting Max FPS to “Unlimited” will not cap your framerate
  • On PC, multi frame generation is now optionally supported
  • On PC, we added a setting to allow players to enable or disable Lamp device support for mouse and keyboard lighting  
  • On XBOX, “The Lucky Ones Died on E-Day” achievement has been removed in order to support the upcoming Mythic Achievements feature. Players will still earn the “I AM A GEAR” Player Title upon completing all other achievements and the achievement remains on Steam
  • In multiplayer, adjusted Player XP to better align the rate of progression across Horde Siege and Versus
  • Made improvement to Backfill AI bot behavior 
• Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD): 
  • On PC, Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) is a new feature that significantly reduces the time spent compiling shaders across different PC hardware configurations. It benefits Gears of War: E-Day and other supported games across the Xbox PC app
  • For launch, ASD will be supported on AMD hardware, with NVIDIA support coming later in October
  • Playing E-Day outside the Xbox PC app? You may still benefit from ASD if the Xbox PC app is installed on your Windows 11 PC, allowing the required shaders to be pre-installed
• LAUNCH KNOWN ISSUES:
  • Playing through the entire length of the game without reloading checkpoints or restarting may cause memory issues. Please reload a checkpoint if you get blocked at an encounter or objective
  • Performance Overlay in Benchmark mode does not include generated frames, and can report a lower than accurate FPS 
  • Game process may continue to run after closing, can be viewed and shut down from task manager 
  • New clients joining a lobby working through an existing save will receive all prior secondary objective and hardcase progress in the War Journal and all relevant Forge rewards 
  • On PC, offline play is unavailable until October 6

Are you ready for Gears of War: E-Day?

If you're a fan of Gears of War or third-person shooters, then you won't want to miss out on Gears of War: E-Day when it leaves early access and launches for the general public on October 6, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

It's turning out to be one of the best games in the series just from the campaign alone, and judging from these long-term plans for its exciting multiplayer modes, Gears of War: E-Day is going to satiate your craving for video game violence for a long time.

Before heading off to buy a copy, I'd recommend upgrading your Xbox Series X's storage to fit Gears of War: E-Day, as the base game's 115GB install requirement is going to take a huge chunk out of it long before its post-launch updates arrive.

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As I write this, I just wrapped up my run-through of Gears of War: E-Day, start to finish. Although, I have yet to experience the full actual game.

For the review build, Gears of War: E-Day's new siege mode is disabled, as is versus multiplayer. It felt odd to me to score a game I haven't fully played yet; as such, this will be a review-in-progress pending the launch state of versus and siege mode, which I presume goes live with the game itself on October 6, 2026.

Gears of War: E-Day is something of an important game for Xbox. It carries the flag for Microsoft's return to exclusive Xbox Series X|S games, and likely has some oversized pressure upon it to deliver. We're not here to review that aspect of the product, though — only what is here sitting in front of me.

And my feelings are a bit mixed.

Gears of War: E-Day has some of the most stunning visuals I've ever seen committed to the medium, with absolutely immaculate lighting treatment, immense and meticulous city detailing, and gorgeous character work. The gunplay is also fantastic, smoothing off some of the series' rough edges with boosted mobility, without sacrificing the Gears feel.

But the overall gameplay structure does the overall game a pretty sizeable disservice in my view, preventing it from reaching its full potential.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Story, Art, and Tech

Gears of War: E-Day takes place over a decade before Gears of War 1, offering us a front-row seat to the brutal and genocidal opening to the Locust's attack on humanity.

The city of Kalona serves as ground zero for that invasion. Kalona is known as a city of science and technological progress, and was instrumental in developing the COG's weapons tech and industrial war economy during the civil war against the UIR. E-Day takes place six weeks after the UIR surrenders, and Dominic Santiago and Marcus Fenix are picking up the pieces and mourning lost friends and family.

The character work on offer in E-Day is absolutely top-shelf. The trauma of loss and the shock of the Locust invasion comes through incredibly well in every single aspect of the game's delivery. The cityscape is immaculately detailed, with interiors fully rendered with a lived-in feel, complemented by some of the best lighting I've ever seen in a video game. Well and truly, Gears of War: E-Day is at the absolute apex of Unreal Engine technological prowess, and the game deserves awards on that basis alone, most likely.

Rendering the city in so much detail really helps serve the story. Gears of War's more recent games take place in a ruined world, where the Locust have effectively already won and decimated humanity and most of its cities. For E-Day, The Coalition had to show a city that was still thriving and populated, and the horrors therein.

From the very first cutscene, The Coalition pulls no punches: this is a horror story, a war story, and a tale of survival and desperation. The COG army is decimated and blindsided, besieged by an unknown threat that they immediately underestimate as monsters without a plan, only to discover later just how smart and organized the Locust actually are.

Civilian NPCs litter the city, sometimes fleeing, sometimes in dismembered puddles on the ground. The reactions from the characters and their development throughout the game really help to elevate that sense of loss and fear — they're not the battle-hardened survivors of the original Gears trilogy. They're young, war-weary from fighting the UIR, and in some cases wholly traumatized already.

I don't want to give too much away about the story, but this very much felt like the first game in a new planned trilogy ... there were aspects of the delivery that suffered as a result. Some plot threads felt designed to be resolved in future games (or DLC?), leaving me wanting somewhat. But the fact that I am eager to learn more about this Emergence Day story arc is probably a plus. It would be far worse if I didn't care, and I find myself caring a lot about the new characters, their struggles, their past lives, and what will ultimately end up happening to them ... given that some clearly aren't present in future installments.

Gears of War: E-Day's setting, visuals, and story delivery represent its best aspects. The game's performance on Xbox Series X is top-tier, with slowdown only occurring during some particularly heavy sequences towards the end. I didn't experience a single crash, and it's great to see a modern game offer split-screen co-op in the modern age as an option.

The new characters are interesting and engaging, and finding out new layers of existing characters is also rewarding as a long-time fan. I think Gears of War: E-Day could've benefitted from leaning more into civilian-oriented side stories potentially ... but as I'm going to explain in the gameplay section, Gears of War: E-Day is let down a fair bit by its gameplay structure all up.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Campaign Gameplay

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first: this is still very much Gears of War. Everything you've loved previously about Gears is still here, and in most cases, elevated to the 11th degree.

E-Day boosts the player character's mobility by a huge amount. Sprint is now more instantaneous and on the left stick like a standard modern shooter. Cover is far more dynamic than it was previously, with the ability to take cover in lower spaces than before, making environments feel more varied and natural. You can now also climb and vault, allowing The Coalition to build on the game's verticality. Given that Kalona is a city-state with large buildings and urban environments, having these features serves the game incredibly well.

The gunplay is also very polished. Chainsaw-ing dudes in half is more rewarding than ever, with almost embarrassingly satisfying sound treatment and chunky gore physics. Watching a severed torso flip onto the floor never gets old.

There's a variety of new weapons which are also instant classics. The Locust have been scavenging the battlefields of the Pendulum wars, adapting old UIR guns with horrifyingly inhumane enhancements. As such, that satisfying M1 Garand "ping" returns from the UIR Markza, repurposed into the axe-hilted Locust Breechshot rifle, for example.

The gunplay lets itself down a bit when it comes to fighting some of the game's bigger enemies, though. Drones, wretches, and some of the earlier enemies are by far the most satisfying to fight, reacting to your bullets and even having destructible armor that makes combat feel more dynamic and modern. I'm not sure why The Coalition didn't extend this gameplay style to some of its bigger enemies, which is where I would argue it'd be far more crucial.

Indeed, in Act 1, Gears of War: E-Day starts so strongly, and I was sitting there wondering if this was going to end up being the best game Xbox ever shipped, but over time, that feeling began to unravel.

Reavers, Brumaks, and other larger enemies barely react at all to gunfire, making them feel like robots or bullet sponges — something Gears 4 was heavily criticized for. You end up just watching the enemy's health bar in some cases for at least some semblance of reactivity, instead of the visuals The Coalition's art team painstakingly worked towards. Towards the end of the game, these types of enemies become more common too, robbing the game of some of its dynamism.

Another irritating aspect of Gears of War: E-Day pertains to its open-but-not-actually-open world design, which to me smacks of rushed or changing game design priorities throughout development.

Kalona is a fully realized 3D city, with a huge variety of urban exterior and interior locations. It's a great canvas that The Coalition can build upon when designing future content, potentially both for Siege and Versus mode. The problem is, it doesn't lend itself particularly well to the campaign mode.

Gears of War: E-Day starts incredibly strongly, with a linear cinematic segment that really sets the tone for the game. Then, it opens up into this odd semi-open world structure that seemed interesting in previews, but in practice, it doesn't really reach further than the glimpses we got over the summer.

There's a map that offers the illusion of large explorable spaces, but in practice, all the segments are very linear. Even the side objectives take place in a structured way, undermining the need or desire to really explore. It felt like The Coalition tried to shoehorn in more reasons to explore by spreading weapon mods and collectibles around, but I just found this aspect of the game to be irritating and pace-breaking.

There's dozens upon dozens of weapon mods to find in the field, but half the time it'll be for weapons you don't really want to use. The game pings you with an annoying pop-up every few seconds saying "hardcase nearby," which just served as a distraction given that the reward was mostly just junk items. Even the collectibles were annoying to find, given that you had to jump through several menus then go manually searching for the item you just found from a huge list. There were more mods to find than there was gameplay canvas upon which to place them ... E-Day really would've benefitted from some kind of vendor system instead here, allowing you to buy mods at your leisure, rather than feeling forced into boring hide-and-seek gameplay every 3 minutes.

These might seem like minor gripes, but given that there's not much else "new" here on offer across the general Gears formula, they stand out a bit like a sore thumb.

It doesn't help that, as a result of the game's structure, you end up revisiting the same locations multiple times as part of the story, which felt anticlimactic and choring, particularly towards the end of the game.

The campaign does have some incredibly epic, cinematic, and deeply emotional moments — don't get me wrong. There are some fantastic sequences spread throughout the game, showcasing Emergence in all of its reptilian, subterranean horror. I just wish they'd doubled up on these moments instead of trying this odd "open" world experiment, which seems ill-conceived and poorly executed, with features that detract rather than elevate the overall experience.

Gears of War: E-Day review — Conclusion (so far)

I thoroughly enjoyed Gears of War: E-Day overall, and am already enjoying my second playthrough on a higher difficulty, but I would be lying if I said the game didn't have large issues — particularly given how easily avoided many of them could've been.

Kalona is an immaculate canvas ripe for telling epic stories. The new, horror-laden tone is absolutely the right direction for Gears of War: E-Day. The existential dread oozes throughout every character delivery, and the city design is among the best the medium has ever seen.

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The gameplay structure placed on top of it becomes the problem, that could've used a lot more iteration and forethought. It felt a bit like E-Day was originally intended to be some form of open-world, but at some point, they retreated, leaving it feeling disjointed. The "open world" exploration aspects are unrewarding and more often than not simply frustrating, and a lot more work could've gone into making boss-level enemies more dynamic and interesting to fight.

If I were to score the game based on the campaign alone, I'd probably give it an 8/10 overall — it's still incredibly fun, and the downsides are frustrating but not game-breaking. In any case, we haven't experienced the full package Gears of War: E-Day represents. We still have Siege and Versus to talk about, and it remains to be seen how fun or even functional those will be at launch. Stay tuned.

Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6, 2026, exclusively on Xbox Series X|S on console with Xbox Play Anywhere for PC, it's also coming to Steam and Xbox Game Pass.

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Gears of War: E Day arrives today on Xbox and PC if you are lucky enough to have Early Access. To celebrate the launch, 8BitDo has expanded its Xbox partnership accessory line to include this incredibly sexy limited-edition mechanical keyboard and mouse set.

Dripping with rugged Gears visual flair, this red-and-black set will be a must-have for Gears fans jumping into the campaign on PC. Unfortunately, it won't ship until October 30th, but pre-orders went live today at $119.99 for the keyboard and $59.99 for the mouse.

8BitDo has been really killing it with the Xbox accessories recently

I'm always impressed by 8BitDo's unusual and creative approach to designing Xbox-themed accessories.

Just last year they dropped the Xbox green translucent keyboard and mouse, which I'm actually the proud owner of (and really need to get my butt moving on the review, but it's fantastic).

The build quality and typing experience of their keyboards is some of the best on the market, and they are pretty reasonably priced when you compare to similar products from other brands.

The Retro, chunky aesthetic also pleases my aging millennial hands, and I've been enjoying the larger mouse a lot more than I expected.

This new E-Day run of the range has the exact same rock-solid engineering tailored specifically for Gears fans. I actually must prefer the design of these to the Xbox Gears Controller, which is a little "busy" looking for my tastes.

If you're gearing up (hehe) to play E-Day on PC, 8BitDo has knocked it out of the park yet again.

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Gears of War is having something of a renaissance right now, as The Coalition go all out to put the franchise back on the map.

Gears has been one of the most consistent Xbox staples in the brand's history, popularizing the third-person shooter genre with its gritty storytelling and bleak world. Gears 4 and 5 experimented away from the formula a bit, and perhaps got lost in the weeds in some ways as they sought to give the franchise new footing. After a successful Gears of War: E-Day beta event, increasingly it's looking like the key to Gears' future may, in fact, lie in the past.

Recently, I was lucky enough to go hands-on with two missions from Gears of War: E-Day's campaign, set during the initial attacks from the vile Locust swarm.

E-Day follows a younger Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, worn down already from a major civil war that society had only just begun to recover from. Then, subterranean horrors emerged from the ground, bringing with them a whole host of terrifying war beasts and brutal makeshift weaponry in a legendary surprise attack that would eventually leave humanity on the brink of extinction.

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E-Day is about those early years, and if the full game is even close to as good as what I experienced last week, Gears of War: E-Day could cement its place as the best Gears of War story in history.

A painstakingly detailed, reactive world

The original Gears of War is very much a product of its time, but also its setting. The game is essentially post-apocalyptic, taking place years after E-Day, with much of civilization already reduced to grey-brown ash and ruins.

Given that Gears of War: E-Day takes place at the very start of the war, The Coalition had to approach it like it is: a very different beast, ultimately. The stakes are far higher; there are still survivors running around, trapped in their homes, and The Coalition weaves that bleak reality into every pixel of E-Day's presentation and gameplay.

Taking place in the town of Kalona, the levels I experienced are right up there with the most painstakingly detailed urban environments I've experienced this gen. It feels less like it's designed specifically as a gameplay canvas, and more like it's designed to feel lived in. The Coalition absolutely delivered here, while still sneakily dotting the map with chest-high (and now shin-high) walls to hide behind with its dynamic cover system.

If you played Gears of War's Siege mode beta, you might already have some idea of what I'm talking about with regard to environmental detail. Car tires puncture and deflate under gunfire, windows shatter, and cover deforms, giving E-Day a sense of life that was missing from the older games.

The town is full of storefronts and interiors, without even a whiff of copy-and-paste. Gears' campaign seems to connect linear segments into wider areas, complete with a mapping tool that was reminiscent of Silent Hill's own. Marcus will sketch notes and routes on the map as you move, which opens up exploration opportunities and side objectives for unlocking weapon mods and equipment for your loadout, as well as lore-enriching collectibles.

It's still unmistakably Gears, complete with a rough prototype chainsaw lancer machine gun, canned execution animations, atop a more dynamic cover system. But it also feels fresh in a way that many franchises struggle with several games deep. I dare say The Coalition cooked here.

A darker, more desperate tone

Gears of War: E-Day is every bit as violent as the previous games, although I feel like we're getting more up close and personal with the reptilian Locust than ever before.

I mentioned stakes in the intro, but there's a keen sense of vulnerability for a C.O.G. that has been caught with its collective pants down — NPCs are seen fleeing the warzone, being gunned down (or worse) in cold blood, as wretches screech through, devouring up the remains.

This first wave of Locust is chaotic and visceral, armed with the ballistic equivalent of axes and clubs intent on murdering anything and everything with a human pulse. The top brass have no idea what's going on. One day, everyone woke up to murderous, hungry monsters writhing out of the ground, and E-Day leans hard into that dark fantasy.

Marcus' self-assured stoicism hasn't fully hardened in E-Day; that sense of inexperience is oddly exposing, giving E-Day a tangible sense of vulnerability. The Coalition uses the game's side objectives to tell short stories within the game's world as well, giving you opportunities to see how regular civilians are being slaughtered en masse in the Locust feeding frenzy. It's an extension of the side-objectives system The Coalition seemed to explore a bit in Gears 5, although I'd argue it makes a lot more sense in E-Day's dense urban climbs. It doesn't rely on vehicular traversal, which arguably tripped up the game's pacing a bit in 5, and there are fewer engine limitations on injecting new areas on the fly.

Speaking of the engine, I think Gears of War: E-Day is probably the most visually impressive game I've played so far this gen. The Coalition are without a doubt the masters of Unreal Engine, perhaps surpassing Epic Games itself. The visual density, the lighting quality, the detailing, all while running at 60 FPS in an inexplicably crisp resolution, demand wonder and immersion like few other developers can muster.

The visuals and music delivery make Gears of War: E-Day's darkly cinematic presentation all the more evocative as you scrape through the blood-soaked streets of cities that are undoubtedly in the process of total destruction.

The Coalition takes Gears to the next level with total and complete confidence

There's little room for hope in Gears of War: E-Day. We all know the conclusion. But for the first time, we're going to experience that hopelessness firsthand.

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Right after playing through the E-Day campaign preview, I loaded up the original Gears of War to do a direct comparison. It's easy to forget sometimes just how far we've come in terms of visuals, presentation, gameplay fidelity, and general polish. It's also easy to fill in the blanks with your imagination — that's practically what we had to do back in the day, playing games at 480p.

The Coalition and other developers working on legacy franchises have some of the toughest jobs in the business. How can you deliver experiences that compete with our nostalgia-tinted imagination? How can you exceed expectations that are, in part, misremembered through fragments of fading memories?

The Coalition's answer seems to be: "you have to over-deliver."

If Gears of War: E-Day's full campaign offers the kind of quality I experienced last week throughout — I'm confident it'll not only be remembered as the best entry in the franchise ... Gears: E-Day could also represent the starting point for a new decade of an Xbox dominated by The Coalition.

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The excitement for Gears of War: E-Day continues to build as Xbox announces brand-new, limited-edition Gears of War: E-Day-style Xbox controllers, now available for pre-ordering on the Xbox website.

One controller is pre-made with a design to resemble the Gears of War logo, while the other controller features a custom-made Xbox Design Lab faceplate along with several buttons, triggers, and joysticks that the player can customize the look of to fit their fashion sense.

Here's everything you need to know about these awesome-looking controllers.

For starters, these accessories are regular Xbox Series X|S controllers with modified cosmetic looks inspired by Gears of War: E-Day, meaning they'll feature all the high-quality ergonomics, responsive controls, and satisfying feedback that earned them a spot among our favorite Xbox controllers.

The pre-made Gears of War: E-Day controller features 3D-molded, laser-etched details meant to resemble the cracked asphalt of a road giving way to a Locust Emergence hole, with the Gears of War logo shining brightly in the middle.

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Additionally, the pre-made controller has a mix of sharp black and red buttons and joysticks to help it stand out more, firm textured grips to make it more comfortable, and a painting of a COG tag on the battery door as a fan-servicey reference to all the dog-tag-style COG tags players collect throughout the Gears of War series.

The limited-edition Gears of War: E-Day Xbox controller will cost you $89.99 and is available for pre-ordering on the Xbox Store or at your local retailer.

The custom Xbox Design Labs Gears of War: E-Day Xbox Controller features a custom faceplate with bloody, heavy-metal-style artwork by Luke Preece, who created official artwork for heavy metal bands like System of a Down, Metallica, Black Sabbath, and more.

As with any Xbox Design Labs controllers, players will be able to augment the controller with cosmetic upgrades like metallic triggers and D-Pads, rubberized side and back grips, and a personalized engraving to make it their own.

If you're going to Gamescom this year, you will be able to see them firsthand, as they'll be on public display at the Xbox Booth, where players will get their first playable taste of Gears of War: E-Day's story campaign mode.

The Xbox Design Labs Gears of War: E-Day Xbox Controller will be available for purchase and customization on September 30, 2026, on the Xbox Store.

But wait, there's more. 8BitDo is collaborating with Xbox to create a special charging dock designed to be paired up with the pre-made Gears of War: E-Day Xbox controller, and it is called the '8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock for XBOX Controllers – Gears of War: E-Day'.

This charging dock is also compatible with regular Xbox Series X|S controllers and Xbox One controllers, and it includes an 8BitDo rechargeable battery pack to save you the trouble of buying one separately for your controller to work with this dock.

The '8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock for XBOX Controllers – Gears of War: E-Day' will cost you $39.99 and is available for pre-ordering on Amazon and 8BitDo's eShop.

Windows Central's take

Xbox has had some wild tie-in controllers over the years, but these Gears of War: E-Day controllers are possibly the coolest ones I've seen in a long time.

The pre-made is definitely my favorite, as its well-done design gives off the cool effect of the Gears of War logo erupting from the ground, and the overall black and red color scheme looks so sick.

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these controllers and play Gears of War: E-Day with it when the game comes out on October 30, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, and PC.

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If, like me, you were wildly impressed by Gears of War: E-Day's insane multiplayer gameplay showcase and want to play it as soon as possible, then you're in luck. E-Day is holding two beta test weekends for players to try out its multiplayer modes and help the devs polish it ahead of its October 6, 2026 launch.

The first beta test will run from August 6, 2026, at 12:00 pm PT to August 10, 2026, at 10:00 am PT for players who pre-ordered the game on Xbox Series X|S or Steam, and/or subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

The second beta test will be open for all players on all eligible platforms and will run from August 13, 2026, at 12:00 pm PT to August 17, 2026, at 10:00 am PT, regardless of whether a player has pre-ordered the game or not.

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To download the beta for the early access weekend, search for it on your respective platform's digital storefront or library for "Gears Beta" if you pre-ordered the game digitally, or redeem an email code sent to your account if you pre-ordered the physical edition.

Accessing the open beta test is easier, as you simply need to search for "Gears Beta" on the Xbox digital storefront, Xbox PC app, or Steam's storefront and download accordingly.

Xbox users will need at least an Xbox Game Essentials subscription to access the Gears of War E-Day multiplayer beta tests.

Steam users won't need an Xbox/Microsoft account to play the Gears of War E-Day multiplayer beta tests, but they'll need to link their Steam account to an Xbox account (which is done via the multiplayer beta test's main menu) if they hope to play with Xbox players via cross-play.

Multiplayer beta content

Here's a list of what content you can expect from Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer beta test versus what content will be available in the full version, sourced from the official Gears of War: E-Day page.

Multiplayer beta exclusive rewards

Additionally, completing certain challenges within the beta tests will net you some exclusive in-game rewards you can use in the beta and in the full game, which include:

• Epic Blast Damage Mags Character Skin – Hit Player Level 20 
• Rare Crush the Bug Weapon Skin Set – Extract from Horde Siege 8 Times on Infantry difficulty or higher. 
• Crush the Bug Banner – Get 25 Headshots 
• Crush the Bug Emblem – Perform 10 Revives 
• Crush the Bug Icon – Perform 5 Prototype Lancer Chainsaw Executions 
• Open Beta Medal & First in the Fight Title – Launch the Multiplayer Beta 

PC spec requirements

If you're planning on playing Gears of War: E-Day on PC, here is a list of recommended specs by The Coalition for you to determine if your rig can run it.

Do note that these specifications aren't reflective of the full game, and The Coalition will update this list with the final PC spec requirements ahead of the game's launch.

Also, make sure you update your NVIDIA Driver to GeForce Game Ready Driver 610.74 before launching the game; otherwise, it won't run.

Minimum requirements

• CPU — AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel i7-6850K / Intel i5-10400.
• GPU — NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 9060 / AMD Radeon RX 6600
• RAM — 12GB
• Storage — 80GD (SSD required)
• Windows Version — Windows 10 / 11 (minimum 22H2)
• Graphics Preset — Medium
• Performance Specs — 1080p, 60fps, Super Resolution: DLSS / FSR / TSR / XeSS

Recommended requirements

• CPU — AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel i5-11600K.
• GPU — NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
• RAM — 16GB
• Storage — 80GD (SSD required)
• Windows Version — Windows 10 / 11 (minimum 22H2)
• Graphics Preset — High
• Performance Specs — 1440p, 60fps, Super Resolution: DLSS / FSR / TSR / XeSS

Windows Central's take

I can't wait to get stuck into a Gears of War game again after all these years, especially after reading Jez Corden's preview about how epic Gears of War: E-Day's "Horde Siege" mode is shaping up to be.

Not to mention its story campaign, as shown in the Gears of War: E-Day Direct in June, which is also building up to a nostalgic thrill ride for players who grew up playing the original trilogy while also bringing in new newcomers with new mechanics and weapons to make it more fast-paced and brutal than previous titles.

But what about you? Are you looking forward to playing the Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer beta tests, or are you waiting until the full game comes out to play the campaign solo or with co-op?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know through the poll, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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Fans eager to know what Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer modes will look like won't have to wait any longer. Coalition has confirmed on X that on July 30, 2026, at 6:00 am PT | 9:00 am ET, it will reveal the first gameplay footage of Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer on Xbox's official YouTube channel.

What we know so far about Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer is that, according to Xbox Wire, it will feature a 12-player PvE horde mode similar to Gears of War 2's horde mode, but on a much grander scale, where you and other players work to fend off invading Locust across giant city maps.

Plus, it will feature a 4v4 PvP mode where players fight in classic Gears of War-style symmetrically designed maps with new traversal mechanics thrown in.

Additionally, playing both these modes will contribute towards completing in-game challenges, events, and achievements, and these multiplayer modes will be seasonally updated via a content roadmap.

Players who pre-ordered the game or who are subscribers of Xbox Game Pass/PC Game Pass will be able to play these multiplayer modes early through an Open Beta test weekend starting on August 6, 2026.

However, this gameplay reveal on July 30, 2026 will give fans a brief early taste of what they can expect to see before then.

Windows Central's take

Gears of War's multiplayer modes are often a major highlight alongside the main campaign, featuring insanely brutal, fast-paced, and challenging firefights that always end in fun chaos.

I still have fond memories of my brother screaming in fear as he was overwhelmed by a squad of Locust before soloing them in a blind panic in Gears of War 2's Horde Mode.

So I can't wait to see how Gears of War: E-Day plans to improve upon Horde Mode because the idea of 12 players scrambling to fight Locust at once with the possibility of friendly fire getting everyone killed sounds like my brand of mayhem.

Gears of War: E-Day is set to launch on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, and PC via Windows and Steam on October 6, 2026.

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Cliff Bleszinski is a legendary name among Xbox fans, as this man was the lead designer behind the original Gears of War trilogy that helped put the Xbox 360 become a dominant force during the mid-to-late 2000s.

Yet, you don't hear from him these days, as he left the video games industry after his game studio, Boss Key Productions, closed down in 2018 due to the company's games Lawbreakers and Radical Heights failing to make enough profit.

However, in a recent interview with 80.Lv, Cliff Bleszinski has said that he wants to work on video games in a full-time capacity.

It's a lengthy interview that provided interesting insights into Cliff Bleszinski's life.

These include his early days shipping shareware games as a teenager before spending the next two decades working at Epic Games, reflecting on Boss Key Productions' rise and fall, and his long-standing alcoholism that spiraled out of control after Boss Key Productions shut down.

In fact, the issue got so bad it caused Cliff Bleszinski to suffer a seizure and land him in the hospital this year in March. After such a traumatic event, Cliff Bleszinski hasn't drunk alcohol since, and during this now four-month sobriety recovery journey, he eventually rediscovered his love for video games.

Cliff Bleszinski has already slowly gotten back into the video game industry in a part-time capacity, working as a consultant for an upcoming asymmetric horror game called Soul Walker, but he wishes to get into the business full-time eventually and "not get pushed into the pool", as he puts it.

Now, Cliff didn't mention what kind of game he's planning to make, but he makes it clear it won't be a PVP game again, as he states, “I'm more of a fan of PvE these days. Horde mode saved Gears 2, and I believe that space is evergreen because players just want to hop online with friends and shoot some stuff, no frills, no questions asked."

He ends the talk with "I’m nowhere near sharing anything specific (about a new game), beyond that, I can’t walk into a Home Depot without seeing a full arsenal at every turn. There’s so much more than just chainsaws.”

Windows Central's take

In some ways, I owe some of my happiest Xbox memories to Cliff Bleszinski, as I still remember gleefully charging into battle against the locust horde with my friends and family in the original Gears of War trilogy that he and his team created.

An experience which, by the way, I hope will be recaptured in the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, as Gears 4 and 5 didn't hit it for me. Although I admit I was blinded by jaded nostalgia for the older games and characters when Gears 4 and 5 came out, so I didn't give them a proper chance (which I'll need to fix at some point).

While I wouldn't mind if Cliff came back to spearhead a spiritual successor to the original Gears of War trilogy, it's ultimately up to him what he wants to make at the end of the day, particularly for the betterment of his own health.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to hear he beat his addiction, as, regardless of your opinions of the man, alcoholism is a slippery slope that can be nearly impossible to come back from if gone too far, and no one should suffer from it.

So I hope that the rest of his sobriety recovery journey goes well and wish him luck on his comeback to video game development.

But what do you think? Do you think Cliff Bleszinski will actually make a full-time comeback into game development? If he does, what do you think his game will be?

If you have any thoughts, please let us know through the poll, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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What's Xbox's strategy for exclusive games? Microsoft itself doesn't really seem sure.

In a new interview with our friends at GamesRadar+, two Xbox C-suite figures offered some mixed messaging on exactly what Xbox fans should expect out of their exclusive games play.

Xbox fans wholly rejected the idea of having the only gaming platform in history without any form of exclusive content. It was the first thing new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma addressed when she got the job, immediately turning around and making Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution permanent Xbox console exclusives. What's happening beyond that, though?

Here's what Xbox execs had to say on the topic, although I'm more confused now than I was previously.

Xbox will get exclusive games. Some. Randomly, apparently?

Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball emphasized strongly that there will be more exclusives for Xbox players beyond Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution. He noted that, indeed, you can't really grow a platform without exclusive stuff — which is something I feel literally anyone on Earth should've known.

"This specific decision was made very early. Asha believes that to build a platform, you must have exclusive services and software — in this case, games. And so to return our platform to consistent growth, we need a reliable pipeline of exclusive games."

"I can assure you, Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are not the only titles we're planning. To grow a platform like ours, you have to have exclusive games and services. These are not going to be the only two titles."

People are speculating about exactly what that might mean.

There has been some suggestion that Xbox might follow PlayStation's stated model, of single-player games being exclusive, while multiplayer games remain multi-platform. After this past week and Bethesda's announcements, many are wondering if that might mean Fallout and The Elder Scrolls VI.

"I wouldn't overly fixate on single-player," Booty said. I think that's a good rule of thumb, but it certainly isn't something that's carved in stone."

"We are the stewards of over 20 game franchises that have made a billion dollars in their lifetime. There are a lot of different games in our portfolio, and we have to think about how different games serve different purposes within it."

Ball then chimed in, "We have a framework for these selections, including how we evaluate them. I recognize that this approach is not obvious to all of our players, and we are committed to making this clearer."

... "Not obvious" indeed.

Exclusives are about setting expectations, if Xbox can't do that then why even bother?

Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution both look amazing, and I'm confident they will be amazing. But Gears of War has almost always been exclusive to Xbox, and Clockwork Revolution is an unknown quantity with the wider audience. I would bet money Microsoft doesn't put up the marketing budget necessary to help Clockwork Revolution cut through the noise either.

I really feel like only heavy-hitters like The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Halo, and Fallout are going to move the needle in any direction here. The massive audiences, the TV show mainstream reach ... the decades of fandom and embedded history. These are the only types of games that could come close to delivering new users to the Xbox ecosystem. It's not about gatekeeping either — this is about whether or not Xbox actually wants to have platform "growth," as Matthew Ball says.

The problem in the near term is that there's a memory crisis going on, and that it's not a hot look on a spreadsheet to be selling consoles at all right now. Each Xbox Series X|S sold incurs a loss even after the price hike. If those users only pick up the console for a single game, or a couple of games, or maybe even three games ... you potentially don't even break even. Furthermore, it's not something the studios would likely want either. No access to PlayStation's massive install base would harm their bottom lines too.

When you can't sell consoles and break even, and your cost of user acquisition is higher than ever ... the road to better margins is selling games everywhere you can, be it Xbox, PlayStation, or beyond. But ... Xbox will keep bleeding users in that universe, maybe even irrevocably. It would end up ceding even more control to potentially hostile rival tech companies. It's self-defeating over time, and it might be impossible to fix now.

The economics are very difficult in the short term, but I feel like if Microsoft doesn't absorb the short-term pain, it'll end up with a far bigger and potentially far less workable problem. The memory crisis won't be forever, and this piecemeal approach to exclusivity doesn't set expectations particularly well for future potential customers.

To convert a non-Xbox user to a full-time Xbox user, you need more than new IP and franchises that have historically been exclusive already. You need a coherent, visible strategy that sets expectations for the platform for non-users. You need visible, known franchises that market themselves by virtue of simply existing. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the point is.

It'll be interesting to see how Xbox actually approaches this in the future, but Matthew Ball and Matt Booty's vague comments aren't helpful.

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Believe it or not, the Gears of War project in development at Netflix might be one of the Xbox adaptations I'm most excited about. I am a Gears of War fan, and after what happened with the Halo TV series, I'm really hoping Netflix takes a completely different approach here.

I don't want another adaptation that treats the source material as optional. I want something that respects what made Gears special in the first place. A gritty, brutal story that actually feels authentic to the games.

Now, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty, along with details revealed by EW itself, has given us our clearest indication yet of what Netflix is planning. And honestly, it's left me feeling more optimistic than I expected.

Instead of beating around the bush, let's look at the direct quotes:

"Netflix announced a live-action Gears of War movie from director David Leitch (The Fall Guy, Bullet Train) and writer Jon Spaihts (Dune: Part III). EW can exclusively reveal that the film will tell 'the origin story of Delta Squad, a ragtag crew of soldiers who wage a desperate war for survival against the Locust, a race of subterranean creatures set on destroying humanity,' according to an official description."

Matt Booty expanded on that by saying:

"The game really is about the bonds between teams. It's about brotherhood at its core. When you go visit the studio, their tagline is 'Never Fight Alone.'"

Now, I don't know about you, but that certainly gets me excited. Gears has always been at its best when it's focused on the relationships between its characters, and not just about the locust and such. If Netflix genuinely understands that the heart of Gears is brotherhood, survival, and fighting impossible odds together, then this adaptation might actually have a shot.

It's even one of those adaptations I think I'll end up forcing my parents to watch as part of my ongoing, and so far largely unsuccessful, mission to get them interested in the things I like.

It’s a great time to be a Gears of War fan, though, especially with E-Day releasing this year, exclusively on Xbox. We also got plenty of other details about Xbox's entertainment ambitions, including a small update on Halo and the surprise announcement of a Sea of Thieves movie. So, at least when it comes to film and television, Xbox seems to be thinking pretty big right now.

But let me know your thoughts. Are these details enough to get you excited about the Gears of War adaptation? Be sure to leave a comment and take part in our poll!

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Microsoft has announced that it will be attending this year's Gamescom event to announce a bunch of Xbox news, host Xbox FanFest, and present the first playable public demo of Gears of War: E-Day, which will give players a sneak peek at its campaign mode.

However, some Gears of War fans are itching to see more gameplay footage of this highly anticipated prequel to the franchise. So, the game's developers, Coalition, decided to sate their appetite with a tech demo for Gears of War: E-Day at Unreal Fest Chicago.

This tech demo doesn't show much combat gameplay, as it focuses more on how detailed the game's presentation is, thanks to the Unreal Engine, from its lighting, environmental details, physics, atmosphere, etc.

Gears of War: E-Day then showed a sneak peek at one of its cinematic cutscenes where Marcus Fenix and other soldiers retreat from an encroaching horde of Locust.

As for Xbox FanFest, this will be the second stop of its comeback world tour. Much like its previous appearance at the June 2026 Xbox Games Showcase, it will feature a bevy of activities for Xbox fans to partake in, like playing video games, competitions, Q&As with the game developers, cosplay, and more.

Gamescom 2026 is set to take place from August 26 to August 30, 2026, and will host a variety of other video game announcements and public demos from other developers like Capcom, for example.

Microsoft also has plenty more announcements in store in the lead-up to Gamescom, so stay tuned as we keep an eye out for info in the coming months.

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I'd like to say it's a surprise, but it really isn't. Gears of War: E-Day had a fantastic showing during this year's showcase season, and thanks to data provided by LevelUp, a marketing analytics company focused on the gaming industry, we now have a clearer picture of just how much of a splash it made.

Gears of War: E-Day ranked fifth among the best-performing games between June 1, 2026, and June 11, 2026, placing it among the most covered, watched, and discussed titles of the showcase season. It's not the only Xbox game to make the list, either.

Before we jump into what other game made the list, let’s go over how these rankings work. The rankings are based on a combination of trailer performance, press coverage, and community engagement. Each game is scored across those categories, with the results combined into a comparative index that can be compared between each game.

It's great to see Gears of War: E-Day perform so well, too. The game genuinely looks fantastic, and based on the reaction so far, it seems plenty of people agree.

Another game that also looks fantastic is Spyro: A Realm Reborn, which I covered yesterday after its trailer surpassed 10 million views, beating the likes of PlayStation's Wolverine on YouTube. On LevelUp's index, Spyro: A Realm Reborn came in ninth place, which is an impressive result in its own right, showing that there is indeed keen interest for Spyro's return.

As for the rest of the rankings, first place went to God of War: Laufey, followed by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake in second. Resident Evil Veronica took third place, while Wolverine finished fourth, just ahead of Gears of War: E-Day in fifth.

It’s all just data, and honestly, it could not amount to much, but it’s still great to see two Xbox franchises on the list, and with that said, let me know your thoughts on the list in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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If you're like me, there's a good chance you grew up in a time when split-screen gaming was the norm and something you simply expected. Whether it was on the original Xbox with Halo: Combat Evolved or later with Gears of War on the Xbox 360, these shared couch co-op moments helped define the early days of Xbox.

As Halo fans know, split-screen has become a bit of a sore spot over the years. After being promised campaign split-screen co-op following its absence in Halo 5, Halo Infinite ultimately never delivered on that promise. It's something many fans, myself included, have wanted for a long time.

Thankfully, it looks like we're finally getting a double dose of good news. Both Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day will feature two-player split-screen co-op, meaning that yes, couch co-op is back, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it.

Starting with Halo: Campaign Evolved, Halo Studios released a new video detailing the game's co-op features. The game will support four-player cross-platform co-op, as well as two-player split-screen co-op on console.

Interestingly, the split-screen reveal came via a YouTube Short of all things. In it, we get some playful commentary from the new voice actor for Sgt. Avery Johnson, so I definitely recommend checking out the full short if you want all the details.

As for Gears of War: E-Day, the reveal actually came during the Xbox Games Showcase, or more specifically, the E-Day Direct that followed. During the presentation, it was revealed:

“In Campaign, all four characters are playable from the start, and we support four-player online co-op and two-player split screen on console.”

Personally, I'm just excited to see the return of split-screen gaming again. I have so many fond memories of playing through the earlier Halo games with a friend, and even the thought of someone else getting to create those same memories with their friends or family puts a smile on my face.

Whether it puts a smile on yours or not is another matter entirely, and both answers are perfectly fine. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day Direct has come and gone, and what a show it was. From entirely new movement mechanics to a much more grounded and open campaign, the latest entry in the war on Locusts is breathtaking to look at, and hopefully just as breathtaking to play.

Here’s every highlight I was able to catch during the show!

Story and gameplay areas

As we’ve known previously, Gears of War: E Day will showcase two of the most iconic characters in the Gears franchise, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. What we didn’t know was that this would come without the pre-built relationship.

Coming home as wandering war veterans looking for where they fit in, Dom and Marcus are seen together celebrating the life of Dom’s brother and Marcus’s best friend, Carlos Santiago. You see, Carlos was the one who connected the two, as Dom and Marcus were never previously close. Their connection had always been someone between them.

By the time Gears of War 1 occurs, these two have been to hell and back, strengthening that lifelong knowledge of one another into a true friendship that plays at the heart of the original trilogy. Seeing these two grow into that role will be something Gears players have yet to experience, and one even my non-gamer wife is interested in playing through (points for me).

The campaign will be centered around the city of Kalona, which was built similarly to the coal towns of yesterday. Emulsion is all the craze, and Kalona was born and grew as a central hub for emulsion activity.

As the campaign progresses, players will journey across the entire cityscape over multiple days as they watch the once bright city uncontrollably fall apart. Replaying through central city areas will be different every time, as each passing will come in the face of more destruction to the homes of people around you.

Players will also have access to dynamic events that play out depending on just how interested they are in exploring the areas each level presents. From people who need rescue in a crumbling apartment, to soldiers who could use some backup at an ambush point, you’ll be able to choose what’s important to you as the mission unfolds.

To play through these new, more open areas, something else was needed. One thing I know Gears purists love is the movement mechanics. Not much has changed on that avenue for quite a few entries, but for the first time in a long while, we’re getting a hefty overhaul!

Modernized movement mechanics

First is the slide mechanic! Footage of this made the feature look like it was something that’s always been part of the series. Not only can players slide into coverage or toward an enemy, but they can also slide underneath obstacles to get a jump on someone from the other side.

Seeing this in the campaign mode was one thing, but seeing it in multiplayer will change the gameplay of the core Gears experience quite a bit. A chance significant enough that Gears just moved up to my number one most-wanted multiplayer title.

They’ve also added JUMPING IN GEARS OF WAR?! Say what? I never in all my years thought they would add a jumping mechanic to the rodeo show game. From what I can tell, this still seems a little limited.

Thankfully, I don’t think we’ll see any bunny-hopping shotgun users coming at us in multiplayer; instead, it appears that the focus is limited to jumping over gaps and up onto higher ledges than before. Rather than only being able to shuffle on top of a ledge that’s waist height, players can jump onto something above their head to pull themselves up.

In turn, this is meant to lead to greater verticality and a sense of freedom in the playable environments. I can already see a wider variety of routes being created throughout campaign and multiplayer matches, where players won’t be limited to triple-wide ramps up to the main area. Instead, they’ll be able to make use of natural environment cover, which means even more moments to use the GNASHER!

New low ground cover also signals a drastic change in combat, as players can now lie low on shorter ledges. Popping up to shoot from these cover spots means more of the player will be exposed, but getting a quick moment of relief, no matter how small it is, will create less stagnant gameplay as a result.

Customized destruction technology

Cover is not only scalable from a height perspective, but also dynamic in terms of destruction, as pillars, road blocks, and more all feature micro-destruction. You won’t be blowing up entire buildings, but rather, the world is destructible on a scale that makes sense.

The tops of cover areas won’t last forever under the stress of extended gunfire, revealing the tops of players and enemies alike. But that dynamic destruction doesn’t end there.

E-holes are no longer pre-defined, as E-Holes now come within random areas of the map. No longer will you be able to “pre-nade” oddly specific-looking places, as these holes will open near players for an added layer of challenge to the chaos of an unraveling city.

Retaining a classic look while redefining fidelity

Gears has also been overhauled visually, with higher-fidelity models featuring more detail in Marcus Fenix's eyebrows than his entire character model did in the original Xbox 360 game. Even with added fidelity, they made sure to retain the look and feel of Marcus Fenix without leaning into some sort of scary uncanny valley scenario.

All of this with real-time ray-tracing at 60 FPS. With a glorious 120 FPS target for multiplayer game modes. I am announcing that I will be shooting each and every neon sign!

All will come with great beauty under the pleasure of brand new weapons like the incinerator, an acid-burning shotgun that literally melts the flesh from enemies. Or a manually triggered grenade launcher that will be perfect for those who like to pretend a rock will protect them forever.

Multiplayer is back

From the get-go, all four characters will be available in four-player coop for the campaign. You won’t be locked out of having to complete any tutorial. You and your friend (or my wife and I) will also have the astounding pleasure of playing Gears of War: E-Day in full split-screen mode!

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see split-screen getting love in 2026 with brand new titles. Too often, these games and series ditch local cooperative play in favor of a dual-screen experience, but there’s just something else about setting up on a couch with your friends or loved ones to play a few hours of Gears of War that would be lost without the feature.

Hopefully, that splitscreen applies to online as well, because returning alongside the revamped multiplayer experience is a new Horde mode, called Horde Siege. The mode will feature 12-player arenas as players cooperatively battle together to take out the never-ending Locust swarms, with more information becoming available at a later date!

Players who pre-order now will get access to the beta (that will eventually become an open beta) on August 6, 2026. While true Emergence begins on October 6, 2026. Coming exclusively to Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.

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I don't get as excited about "ERMAGHERD EXCLUSIVES" as a lot of folks out there, but there's no denying it's a hot topic people really care about.

As we wait for the big Xbox/Gears of War double-header later on today, exclusive fans will love what we're hearing.

According to Jeff Grubb on Giant Bomb's latest Summer Game Fest show, Gears of War: E-Day was planned to be on PS5, but now it is not. Potentially this marks new XBOX CEO Asha Sharma's first big call on platform exclusivity.

Gears of War: E-Day was first revealed a couple of years ago, and obviously since then XBOX has been pretty keen to put its first-party games out there on PS5. Forza Horizon 5 was a smash hit when it made its debut on Sony's console, and Halo is primed to make its first appearance with Campaign Evolved.

Both of those are old games, though, as was Gears of War: Reloaded when it launched on PS5. The Gears and Halo that PS5 players have had and will be getting might be 'new,' but they're both decades-old games at their core.

Pulling the plug on Gears of War: E-Day for PS5 would be a pretty huge call and represent a shift in strategy and no doubt one that the fans of platform exclusives will be singing about from the rooftops.

Unlike PlayStation, though, XBOX will continue to support PC with all its biggest releases, I mean, it's a Microsoft platform after all. But it looks like giving all the goodies to the other side could start to slow down.

I can see some sense in it, for sure. Multiplayer games like Forza Horizon 6, you want in as many places as possible. Live service franchises live and die by having as many players as possible.

We'll soon find out for sure, though. The Xbox Showcase starts tonight at 10am Pacific, 6pm BST, and the Gears of War: E-Day show is right after it.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Gears of War, as I'm sure you know, needs no introduction, as it's one of Xbox's flagship franchises and one that I immediately associate with the brand. Having completed the original Gears of War for the first time in years on Insane difficulty with my friend last year, it left me wanting more.

Now, a year later, it seems the community has taken up the mantle with Gears of War: Redux, a full community-built overhaul of the original PC version of Gears of War.

Featuring new maps, custom maps, Horde Mode, and a long list of additional features, this ambitious project aims to breathe new life into a classic that I believe desperately needed it. Let's take a look at everything included in this impressive overhaul.

The overhaul aims to improve AI, add new features, modernize the game's feel, and improve accessibility. It also adds support for 4K resolutions, ultrawide displays, and improved FOV handling, while making the game more compatible with modern hardware and addressing issues that have plagued the title for over two decades.

Personally, what gets me most excited is the inclusion of Horde Mode, complete with 50-wave progression, as well as support for Gears of War 2 maps, custom community maps, split-screen co-op, and even Xbox 360-style achievements. For a game that first launched on PC back in 2007, it's an impressive list of additions that I thought were worth bringing attention to.

If you're like me and love Gears of War, it's definitely worth checking out. The project is set to release on June 17, 2026, and if you want more details, you can join the community discord by clicking here. After what I felt was a pretty disappointing remaster with Gears of War: Reloaded, I'm eager to give this a try when it launches, especially with Gears of War: E-Day on the horizon.

I'd love to hear what you think of Gears of War: Redux. Is this something you'll be checking out when it releases? Let me know in the comments, and as always, make sure you take part in our poll!

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On May 9, 2026, WWE announced during its Backlash PLE that an upcoming PLE called Triplemania 34 will be sponsored by Gears of War: E-Day, and will go live on September 11, 2026, and September 13, 2026.

On the surface, this isn't anything special, as WWE in recent years has received plenty of sponsorships from AAA videogames like DOOM: The Dark Ages, Diablo 4, and Borderlands 4, to name a few.

However, as pointed out by Video Games Chronicle, this is potentially major news for Gears of War: E-Day, as this could provide hints at when this highly anticipated prequel for the Gears of War franchise will be released.

For example, during WWE's Clash in Paris on August 31, the Street Profits dressed as Borderlands' iconic Psycho enemies as part of a Borderlands 4 sponsorship, just two days after the game's September 12, 2026, release date was announced.

Then, recently at WWE's WrestleMania 42 PLE, which ran April 18, 2026, to April 19, 2026, Penta dressed up as Mortal Kombat's iconic villain, Shao Kahn, as part of a sponsorship for the Mortal Kombat 2 movie, which released a month later on May 8, 2026.

Windows Central's take

Now, based on these examples, I believe it is likely that when Triplemania 34 arrives on September 11, 2026, one of two things could happen:

• 1. Gears of War: E-Day's release date will be announced around the same time as Triplemania 34.
• 2. Gears of War: E-Day's release date will be announced months prior (probably during the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026) and be released around the same month as or next month after Triplemania 34.

Of course, all of this is speculation and not concrete evidence because, for all we know, Gears of War: E-Day's release date could be announced later down the road at the 2026 Game Awards and be released in 2027. Anything could happen in the video games industry after all.

Either way, we will have to wait for the Xbox Games Showcase to see if all this speculation turns out to be true.

One thing's for sure, players are getting fired to return to the mad world of Gears of War as Gears of War: E-Day is taking fans back to the origins of its most beloved heroes, Marcus and Dom, and finally showing the day when the Locust began its never-ending war on humanity.

I know my friends and I are itching to play Gears of War: E-Day as we have fond memories of the original Gears of War trilogy (though I could do without dealing with the Kryll ever again), so seeing Marcus and Dom team again for one more adventure (even if it's in the past) will be a fun, nostalgic, goretastic, thrill-ride.

🗨️Over to you

When do you think Gears of War: E-Day will be released? Do you think WWE's Gears of War: E-Day sponsorship gives us a hint when this game will be released, or do you think it's all a big coincidence?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let me know in the comments, on Reddit, or in the poll below.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Original article (03/30/2026):

Microsoft has announced the airtimes for the upcoming Xbox Games Showcase 2026 event, which is scheduled to go live on June 7, 2026, at 10:00 am PST / 1:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm GMT.

This livestream will show off world premiere gameplay footage on upcoming first-party, third-party, and indie Xbox titles and other exciting announcements.

After the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 ends, it will be immediately followed by a stream purely dedicated to Gears of War: E-Day. This event will have the game's developer, Coalition Studio, showcase debut gameplay footage and provide additional info on this highly anticipated prequel to the legendary Gears of War franchise.

The full airtimes for the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 are as follows:

• PDT: June 7, 10:00 am
• EDT: June 7, 1:00 pm
• BST: June 7, 6:00 pm
• CEST: June 7, 7:00 pm
• JST: June 8, 2:00 am
• AEST: June 8, 3:00 am

It will be available to watch in over 40 languages along with American Sign Language, British Sign Language and English Audio Descriptions.

The platforms this event will be streamed on will include (but not limited to):

• YouTube.com/Xbox
• Twitch.tv/Xbox
• Twitch.tv/XboxASL
• Facebook.com/Xbox

On top of that, Microsoft has announced that Xbox FanFest will be making a return for this year's Xbox Games Showcase as part of Xbox's 25th anniversary celebrations.

For those unaware, Xbox FanFest is a community-driven event where Xbox fans get exclusive access to Xbox gameplay premieres, chat with the developers, take part in Xbox-themed games, and more.

This year's Xbox FanFest will be centred around looking back at Xbox's 25-year history and looking forward to what's in store for the platform in the future.

If you want to take part in this event for free, head to www.xbox.com/fanfest before the end of April 12, 2026, for a chance to win free tickets (do note that no purchases are necessary and that it's open for legal U.S. residents over 18 years old).

🗨️ Over to you

Are you excited for the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 and Gears of War: E-Day Direct? Will you be participating in 2026's Xbox FanFest?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know through the poll below, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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Forza Horizon 6 has been shaping up to be the best entry in the series, at least, that’s what it looks like at a glance. The dazzling spectacle of Japan, coupled with all the new and shiny upgrades to the ForzaTech Engine, promises to bring denser traffic, more dynamic environments, and improvements that will bring the world to a level of detail never found in previous games. The whole adding things doesn’t seem to be the only direction that the franchise has taken.

The Forza Horizon team has announced that Forza Horizon 6 will no longer feature Club functionality. Since Xbox is removing Social Clubs from the platform this April, Playground is being forced to retire the feature as well, since it relies on that tech as the foundation for its later Forza games.

Not only does this change affect Forza Horizon 6, but it forces Playground to shut down social clubs down on Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Horizon 4. Forza Horizon 3 is not affected by this. Digging a little deeper, Forza Horizon 3 doesn’t use the Xbox Social Club feature as its backbone.

Why not just build it again?

Forza Horizon 3 used its own proprietary Social Club feature to get the job done, which in turn begs the question, why not just do the same thing for Forza Horizon 6?

For Forza Horizon 4 and 5, there’s very little reason to continue to update the games so long into their life cycle, with the sequel only months away. There will be far fewer players on Horizon 5 as people move over to the next game, making the idea of rebuilding something nobody would use rather silly.

As for Forza Horizon 6, it’s really the same reason. Playground is currently only a couple of months away from launching its next game. Not to mention this will be the first time they’ve ever launched across three platforms all at once.

Development time is currently being spent on bug fixing, optimization, and polishing. I don’t think anybody with reasonable expectations would think they could rebuild the feature all over again and put it in Forza Horizon 6 in time for it to work across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

Don Joewon Song, a renowned Forza Horizon fan and content creator, was especially surprised by the removal of the component.

“I can't believe I'm saying this. Forza Horizon 6 will NOT feature In-Game Clubs. This will be the first Forza Horizon title to not have this feature!!”

Maybe this is a good thing

If you’re not a regular Social Club user, maybe its removal doesn’t sting much. Since Forza Horizon 4, clubs have felt stripped-down and a bit soulless. But for Millennials like me, the original Forza Horizon trilogy had clubs that actually mattered, with leaderboards, club rewards, and a real sense of belonging, not just a roster of random names.

In other words, the newer systems were awful by comparison. Maybe we can go back to the ways of old?

Banding with fellow players once led to noteworthy rewards, something missing from Forza Horizon 4 and 5. If you’d like to see this kind of teamwork-focused feature make a comeback in Forza Horizon 6, consider supporting the petition currently making the rounds on the Forza Horizon forums. Let’s come together and advocate for a club system built from the ground up!

How do you feel about clubs being dropped?

Losing Social Clubs does mean Forza Horizon 6 won't have one of the unique aspects previous games had. A place for players to come together without having to rely on external services like Discord.

Is the loss going to affect your enjoyment of the newest Forza Horizon game compared to its predecessors?

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

When it comes to the Xbox ship, the course it's been sailing has been what one might call a rocky one. After slowly bringing a few games from Xbox and Windows PC over to PlayStation, the floodgates have opened with the latest entry of Forza Horizon, Fable, Gears of War, and even Xbox’s beloved Halo franchise.

Some folks have been okay with the idea because it’s a genuinely good thing to give gamers more access to games. That’s why they’re gamers! But it’s caused a calamity of sorts in the minds of people like me who have asked the question, why buy an Xbox at all?

If all the games you’re making will be coming to other platforms, what other reason is there to pick your console over another when the competition has an extra perk or two in the form of games? I argued that Game Pass was still a reason to play Xbox, but with the advent of PC gaming hitting all-time highs (sans AI pricing out the market), players could flock to that ecosystem as well. Heck, that’s Windows is just another Microsoft platform

That’s why I think the recent shuffle at Xbox has caused quite a few people on social media to start giving advice to the new CEO, Asha Sharma. At the top of almost every single list I personally read, I see someone mentioning the need for exclusive games again. I even see people asking for the ports of Halo, Fable, Forza, and other games to be cancelled entirely.

Xbox CEO says, "The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."

I didn’t think any of this was possible, since it’s such a cataclysmic shift in thinking to go from being exclusive to non-exclusive; there was no way they’d reverse that decision, right? Well, Asha spoke to our Jez Corden recently and didn’t rule it out.

When asked what Asha Sharma thought about the idea of returning to exclusive games, she said, "Right now, I need to learn, candidly. About the 'why' of these decisions, what we were optimizing for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today. That's the honest answer. I'm looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment, or in short-term efficiencies and things like that. The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."

Excuse me? Did she really say that? I know fans were speculating after her initial, “Hear you,” comment on X when someone asked her last Friday to return to making games exclusive, but everyone thought it was more fluff than actual talk.

This is the CEO of Xbox coming out and stating, word-for-word, that the idea of games coming back to being made for their hardware only is not out of the picture. Is that a glint of hope I see in the corner of my eye?

The Xbox ecosystem has been suffering financially over the last couple of years, and whether it’s been the hardware price increases, exclusives, Game Pass hikes, or something else, it’s clear that the status quo won’t do anymore. Asha Sharma may have been brought in without a massive amount of gaming experience, but when it comes to customer acquisition, it’s one of her greatest strengths.

A return to form for Xbox that included a world of exclusives consumers waited years for the platform to achieve would be terrific. However, I don’t think that will be happening overnight. Nor do I think that will start with games like the Halo remake or Forza Horizon, which make mega bucks on PlayStation.

First, Asha needs to learn the business, and that means going around to development studios as detailed in her latest interview. But it also means committing to the ‘return of Xbox’ and the hardware itself; the rest of the decisions will come with time.

"Xbox players have thousands of dollars invested, in money and time too — it's incredibly important for me to understand that and protect that," Sharma said. "I am committed to 'returning to Xbox,' and that starts with console, that starts with hardware. You will hear more about that soon; we'll have some announcements coming up. You will see us collectively investing here.” Asha explained.

Continuing, “We also know that there are a lot of players who aren't on console or our hardware, and I want to deliver great games to them too. I need to learn more about what that can look like, what decisions were made, what we need to do going forward, and I want a little bit of time and space to do that."

The commitment to hardware seems to have been in the works for some time, while the idea that exclusives could make a comeback seems rather fresh. Like, new CEO fresh. Only time will tell if Xbox and Microsoft see the return of a once set-in-stone console perk as good for their business.

What do you think about Xbox’s shifting stance on exclusives?

Xbox leadership’s “the plan is the plan until it’s not the plan” line leaves a lot of room for interpretation — and potential change. We want to hear how you’re reading it. Do you think Xbox should lean back into exclusives, stay multiplatform, or find a new middle ground?

Drop your thoughts below and join the conversation!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

As 2025 closes, the teams at Xbox put out a message looking back over the first-party games that launched throughout the year, with some small tidbits about what's to come in 2026, including with the next Gears of War.

Speaking with Xbox Wire, The Coalition Studio head Mike Crump reflected on the launch of Gears of War: Reloaded, while also providing some comments on the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day.

"This is our most ambitious game yet, entirely built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5 to feel like Gears and play like new," Crump says. "This is a return to our roots as Marcus & Dom face the Locust for the first time ever. It’s the best place to jump into the Gears universe, and we can’t wait to share more next year."

While Gears of War: Reloaded brought a second remaster of the original game to Xbox, PC, and PlayStation back in August, Gears of War: E-Day will be the first new mainline game in the franchise since 2019's Gears 5.

Outside of the game's reveal trailer, nothing else has been shown so far, but Gears of War: E-Day is slated to launch at some point in 2026. The titular event, Emergence Day, is the outbreak of war between humanity and the Locust Horde.

Personally, I'm most curious about how Crump envisions this as the best place for new players to jump in. Obviously, as a prequel, there'll be some new backstory elements, but is there something else in store?

2026 will be a big year for Xbox Game Studios

Gears of War: E-Day is far from the only big Xbox title slated to launch next year. Alongside the new Gears of War game, teams across Xbox Game Studios are working on an array of games pencilled in for 2026.

That includes Halo Studios' Halo: Campaign Evolved, an expanded remake of the original game that is also bringing the franchise to PlayStation for the first time.

Playground Games has a double-feature on deck, with the collection of three U.K. studios working on the Japan-bound open world racer Forza Horizon 6, as well as the long-anticipated reboot of Fable, a role-playing game series that's been dormant for years.

That's in addition to updates and DLC planned for multiple games that launched in 2025, including Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds 2.

2006 was a long time ago. I was 21 then, and like many other gamers of the time, got my first taste of the epic Gears of War. Since then, it has been remastered twice, first with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, and most recently with Gears of War: Reloaded.

Of course, I was always going to play the latest version, not least because Xbox very generously gave those of us who owned Ultimate Edition a free copy. Cheers for that!

But from the word go, I felt different this time. I genuinely haven't touched any version of the first Gears of War game since the launch of Ultimate Edition, so it's been long enough to feel like I was coming in fresh again.

But I felt really rough. The camera movement was really messing with me, and I couldn't stick with it for more than a few minutes. I don't remember feeling this way in the past, so I guess maybe it's just that I've gotten older and my eyes are definitely weaker?

But fortunately, there's a setting to make everything much better. I completely missed it at first, because it's not where I expected it to be, but thanks to my colleague, Samuel Tolbert, who pointed it out, I'm now back having a grand old time blasting Locust.

Turning off camera shake completely changes the game

I'm not sure exactly what caused how this game made me feel. I'm hedging that it's a combination of age and weaker eyes, and the fact that I'm now playing Gears of War at a frame rate I've never experienced before. Way back in the day, 30 FPS was what we got. In 2025, playing Gears of War: Reloaded with an NVIDIA RTX 5090, well, let's say you're getting a lot higher frame rates than that.

It's smooth as hell, but I am wondering if the added speed is helping trigger the weird feelings I'm getting. But instead of lowering that, I turned off the camera shake, and it's instantly like playing a different game. I'm comfortable again, I can focus properly, and I can play the game for more than a few moments at a time.

I feel ridiculous having missed the setting, but equally, I was looking for it alongside the other display settings. It's actually under the game settings menu, so if it's bothering you, head on in there, check it to off, and I'm positive you'll feel the benefit.

I'd also have liked to see an FOV slider, at least on PC. As we've seen recently with Borderlands 4 on console, a tight FOV is another feature that can lead to nausea in some players. I get that Reloaded isn't a full remake, so it probably wasn't a priority to work in, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing it was there all the same.

But removing the camera shake does help a lot. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Locust to saw in half.

It's only been a few days, but Xbox Game Studios and The Coalition's Gears of War: Reloaded has already reached a new milestone of over 1 million players.

The official Gears of War account on X (Twitter) shared the news on Friday.

"Ending the console war, one grub at a time," the post says. "Thank you for 1 million players."

Gears of War: Reloaded launched on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Steam and Xbox PC), and (in a series first) PlayStation 5.

Now, naturally, there are some caveats, and this does not mean the game has sold a million copies. As an Xbox first-party title, it's included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Additionally, Xbox players who bought the digital version of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition before Reloaded was announced received a free copy of the new remaster.

It would be fascinating to get some kind of comprehensive breakdown of where all the players are from and how they're playing, but I'm well aware that type of information won't be shared.

I'd also be remiss not to note that Gears of War: Reloaded launched on the same day as the Xbox Series X|S versions of Helldivers 2, marking the first PlayStation-published game to arrive on Xbox.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if most Xbox players are opting to check that out before returning to Gears, but I could be wrong.

If you haven't checked out this second remaster of the original Gears of War just yet, be sure to read my Gears of War: Reloaded review, where I wrote that "If you've never played Gears of War before, this is your opportunity to go through one of the most important third-person shooters in gaming history. If you have played it before, it's still the definitive edition of a landmark release that's easier to play across platforms, and it's probably worth a co-op run or two, but you'll be fine waiting as well."

Where will Gears of War go from here?

I'm extremely curious to see where Gears of War is headed, not just next year, but beyond. Gears of War: E-Day, which is slated to launch in 2026, is officially coming to Xbox and PC, but it seems extremely clear that it'll also come to PlayStation 5. This prequel is set during the titular Emergence Day, and once again stars Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.

Whether or not the port happens simultaneously with the other versions is a different question. Still, despite my excitement for E-Day, I'm actually more curious to see what happens beyond that.

It seems only fitting that Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 should also get the "Reloaded" remaster treatment in order to continue expanding the series. Unlike the first Gears of War, these games have never even been brought to PC.

With that said, Gears of War: Reloaded benefited greatly from having Gears of War: Ultimate Edition as a base to work from and expand upon. To remaster Gears of War 2 and 3 will be more work, no matter what approach Xbox and The Coalition take.

Personally, I think it would make sense to see Gears of War 2: Reloaded in 2027, with Gears of War 3: Reloaded following in 2028 in order to completely bring the original trilogy to modern platforms, but this is just speculation.

Outside of the games, a Gears of War movie is also underway at Netflix, with director David Leitch (Bullet Train, The Fall Guy) working on the script with Jon Spaihts, who has co-written Prometheus as well as Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two.

One of many hot topics across the gaming industry right now is credits, or more specifically, making sure that the people who develop video games and contribute in capacity are properly credited for said work.

It's with that fact in mind that I was particularly eager to boot up Gears of War: Reloaded, to see how the upcoming Xbox Game Studios remaster would handle crediting the teams that have worked on it.

The reason I was particularly curious is that Gears of War: Reloaded is the second remaster of the original game, building on work previously done by The Coalition with 2015's Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

When I first began playing Gears of War: Reloaded, I immediately checked to see how the game handles its credits. Navigating to the Extras tab, I'm pleasantly surprised by what I see: Instead of bundling the game's various layers into one lump sum, every layer of Gears of War: Reloaded credits is present and available to check.

It's a neat approach, and one that I'd like to see more video game remakes and remasters adopt in the future. It's not difficult to locate, it's not overly complicated, and each one is viewable by itself instead of requiring you to sit through the entire credits if you're just looking for one particular segment.

I also have to mention that upon finishing the campaign, the credits roll in order, beginning with Gears of War: Reloaded, then shifting to Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, before finally concluding with the original credits for Gears of War.

From Xbox Series X|S to Xbox One and then finally back to Xbox 360. No one is left behind from any generation, which I seriously appreciate.

Video game crediting isn't always done right, especially with remasters

It's unfortunate that this is even newsworthy, but the sad reality is that even now, many big companies don't credit appropriately, removing key chunks of the teams that worked to make a video game's launch possible.

That goes triple with remasters and remakes, where possible oversights and outright malicious excisions are all too common.

Earlier this year, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD for Nintendo Switch removed the developers who worked on the original Wii game, simply noting that it was based on their work without any specific attribution.

This isn't even the first time it's been an issue just with Nintendo. In 2023, former Retro Studios staff criticized Nintendo over the crediting setup in Metroid Prime Remastered for Nintendo Switch.

Instead of having the credits for the staff that worked on the original game included in any way, the game chucks them all into one pile with a single line: "Based on the work of Metroid Prime (original Nintendo Gamecube and Wii versions) development staff."

Konami's Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner remaster, Mars, takes a similar unfortunate approach, with the original team relegated to “A tribute to the original production staff and contents.”

Hopefully Gears of War: Reloaded can serve as an example

Hopefully, we'll see more remastered games in the future, using the example set here with Gears of War: Reloaded. Prior work shouldn't be erased, whether it serves as inspiration for a remake or the foundation for a remaster.

In my review of Gears of War: Reloaded, I wrote that "Everything is building on the bones of a prior remaster, yet the result is a hair more visually impressive than I would've imagined before first playing it. Nostalgia plays tricks, and the overall improved image quality is more than I expected."

Gears of War: Reloaded is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. It's also available in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Ducking under enemy turrets, carefully throwing a grenade, and turning a Locust's head into pulp with a pull of my Gnasher shotgun: It's the same as it was years ago, but it still feels great.

Over the past several days, I've had the opportunity to play Gears of War: Reloaded, a second remaster (more on that below) of the original game that updates the visuals for modern gaming hardware, while still leaving the base experience as it has been for the past 19 years.

The result is fun, and it's worth experiencing if you somehow haven't ever checked out the pioneering effort that this game provided for not just Xbox, but third-person gaming as a whole.

With cross-platform play and cross-progression, it's an iconic game made to look better than ever while being more accessible than ever. That's reason enough to take a look.

This review was made possible thanks to a review code provided by Xbox Game Studios. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

Gears of War: Reloaded review — What is it?

Gears of War: Reloaded is a third-person shooter developed by The Coalition (with support from Disbelief and Sumo Interactive) and published by Xbox Game Studios.

This is the second remaster of the original Gears of War developed by Epic Games, with the first remaster, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, being developed by The Coalition back in 2015, shortly after Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise.

Gears of War: Reloaded builds on Ultimate Edition, using it as a base while the visuals and framerate are further improved, alongside other technical aspects such as new accessibility options.

Gears of War: Reloaded is available for $40 (it's a free upgrade for Xbox players who bought the digital Ultimate Edition before it was announced) on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and (in a series first) on PlayStation 5, complete with cross-play and cross-progression support. It's also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Gears of War is set on the world of Sera, where an alternate humanity is struggling after the events of Emergence Day, which saw the Locust Horde emerge from underground, killing millions upon millions.

In desperation, the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) used the Hammer of Dawn satellite weapon to burn human cities, destroying large chunks of the invaders alongside massive parts of humanity.

Now, the survivors are split into camps, with the Gears working as soldiers for what's left of the COG, while others stick to themselves as so-called Stranded.

Gears of War opens 14 years after Emergence Day, with Dominic "Dom" Santiago rescuing his friend Marcus Fenix from prison. Enlisting Marcus back as a Gear, the pair work together as part of Delta Squad to try and end the war once and for all.

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Gears of War: Reloaded review — Story and characters

Gears of War centers on the exploits of Delta Squad, one of the many teams of human soldiers fighting back against the Locust Horde.

The story is still the most straightforward in the series, with a simple plot: Delta Squad is assigned to deploy the Resonator, a device that can map out the underground Locust tunnels and allow the COG to deploy a weapon that can finally destroy the underground menace.

While Marcus and Dom initially seem to be stoic stereotypes, both have hidden depths, with some surprisingly introspective lines as they reflect on the toll this war has taken on everything.

Gears of War: Reloaded review — Gameplay and features

The original Gears of War (while not the first third-person shooter) was one of many titles that helped solidify the genre, implementing different gameplay mechanics that are still used in other titles today. All of that was true in 2015 with the Ultimate Edition, and it's true now with Reloaded.

The biggest focus? Cover. Wading out into a firefight is a great way to die, even on the lowest difficulty, which means I have to strategically weave between different walls and columns to avoid enemy fire, only popping out to briefly focus on an enemy or three.

You do have options for when a melee breaks out, with the iconic Lancer rifle's Chainsaw Bayonet (when revved up) easily cutting through Locusts that are unfortunate enough to round the corner at the same time as you.

Gears of War also introduced a unique mechanic called Active Reloads, which incentivize frequent reloading with careful timing. Upon reloading, a bar moves under the gun in the upper-right corner.

Reloading a second time at just the right moment will reload the gun faster than it would've been otherwise, getting you back in the action quicker and bestowing more damage for a limited time.

The campaign can be played in single-player or two-player co-op — which can take anywhere from 7-10 hours, depending on what difficulty you're playing on — and is spread across five acts, with different chapters introducing new enemies to take and weapons to use.

While I played through the campaign, I did not have the opportunity to try the remastered multiplayer. The servers are online, but there weren't enough players trying the multiplayer in the review period to get into a match.

No bots in multiplayer is a miss, especially since the team has done other backend work, with servers that run at 60Hz instead of 30Hz.

I'll update this section once I've had the chance to play the multiplayer for a bit after the game is available for everyone.

Gears of War: Reloaded review — Visuals and audio

Gears of War: Reloaded looks beautiful, with a number of improvements that have been layered on top of the previous remaster. That means that the vast majority of the character models, environments, and other textures generally look as they did with 2015's Ultimate Edition, but better.

The final output of a 4K HDR image and a smooth 60 FPS in campaign (with 120 FPS support in multiplayer) is combined with a number of improved effects, especially for lighting, explosions, post-processing, and different particles.

The result is gorgeous, with some particularly impressive skyboxes and indoor scenes, with the light pouring through shattered windows in the rare tranquil moments. The game's sound quality has also been updated, with support for 7.1 3D Spatial Audio.

Reloaded also takes advantage of the ultra-fast SSDs in consoles, with no loading screens in the campaign. The only exceptions are when I loaded a campaign save or when I died and reloaded a checkpoint, and these only took a couple of seconds at most.

Gears of War: Reloaded review — Accessibility and approachability

Gears of War: Reloaded has a handful of useful accessibility settings. One particular feature that I like is the ability to remap the COG and Locust team colors for markers and weapons, in multiplayer and in campaign.

While they are set to blue and red by default, nothing is stopping you from flipping them, setting the COG to orange and the Locust to green, and other combinations. There's even an option for changing the damage indicator color as well.

You can also change it so you merely have to hold a button instead of mashing it for specific actions, which is useful for anyone who suffers from repetitive stress injuries in their hands. Players can also rebind controller buttons away from the default setup.

The game also features screen narration, as well as text-to-speech and speech-to-text, making it easier to communicate without typing out messages in multiplayer.

There is still one area left for future improvements, as it's not possible to adjust the size of text for subtitles and your ammo count.

As for the game's general approachability, this is the best way to get started if you're a newcomer in Gears of War, since it's the very first game in the series. Just be sure not to skip the opening cutscene.

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Gears of War: Reloaded review — My final thoughts

✅You should buy this if...

• You've never played Gears of War.

If you're a newcomer (on PlayStation, Steam, or even Xbox) that has somehow never played the original Gears of War, then this is the definitive way to do it. It looks and runs better than ever across more devices than ever.

• You want to play Gears of War co-op across different platforms.

• While Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 have co-op across PC and Xbox, this is the first time that a Gears of War game has been available on PlayStation. Because of the smooth cross-play and cross-progression systems, it's perfect for jumping into co-op and playing together with a friend or family member, no matter your platform of choice.

❌You should not buy this if...

• You aren't interested in cover-based third-person shooters.

While Gears of War is the quintessential foundation on which cover-based third-person shooters are built, if you don't enjoy the genre, then this isn't going to be the game that changes your mind.

You're going to be ducking into waist-high walls through the entire game, and innovations from later in the series (like grabbing enemies from behind cover or assassinating foes that are unaware of you) aren't present here.

Gears of War: Reloaded is a fascinating thing, from both the perspective of game development and on the end-user side.

Everything is built on the bones of a prior remaster, yet the result is a hair more visually impressive than I would've imagined prior to first playing it. Nostalgia plays tricks, and the overall improved image quality is more than I expected.

Still, this is the same game as it was in 2015. The improvements that the sequels brought with new weapons and gameplay options aren't here, and there's no photo mode or other additions that would make a replay even easier to recommend.

Truly, the most significant difference Reloaded brings is its availability, as it's now a full multiplatform release that's here for the first time on PlayStation consoles while also finally giving PC players a decent version of the game.

If you've never played Gears of War before, this is your opportunity to go through one of the most important third-person shooters in gaming history. If you have played it before, it's still the definitive edition of a landmark release that's easier to play across platforms, and it's probably worth a co-op run or two, but you'll be fine waiting as well.

Gears of War: Reloaded is a good time, but more than anything, it's got me curious as to just what the eventual, inevitable remasters of Gears of War 2 and 3 will end up looking like.

Gears of War: Reloaded is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. It's also available in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

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The Gears of War movie in development at Netflix is underway, with the screenplay being written right now.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, husband and wife production duo David Leitch and Kelly McCormick briefly discussed their work on the upcoming adaptation of Xbox Game Studios' iconic third-person shooter franchise.

Leitch — who is directing the Gears of War movie — is currently working on the script alongside writer Jon Spaihts, who co-wrote the screenplays for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, as well Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 1 and Dune Part 2.

"We’re writing right now with Jon Spaihts, and we’re really excited about it," says McCormick. "There’s a lot of energy from The Coalition and from Netflix, because The Coalition is releasing a game in 2026."

"We won’t hit that release date, but maybe something that feels relevant to the release of the new game. It’s an opportunity for David to do a war film, which he hasn’t gotten to do yet, and a bit of sci-fi in his own way with this beloved IP in his own way."

While we've known since 2023 that Spaihts was attached to the project, this is the first confirmation that work on the script is actually underway.

A big couple of years for Gears of War

After being dormant for a while, it's a big time for Gears of War at Xbox, with The Coalition launching Gears of War: Reloaded on Aug. 26, 2025. This remaster brings upgraded visuals to the original game, with 4K resolution, 120 FPS in multiplayer, and other updates.

Notably, in addition to launching on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Xbox Game Pass, it's also the first time a Gears of War game will have launched on PlayStation 5.

Looking ahead, the next new mainline game, Gears of War: E-Day, is slated to launch at some point in 2026. This game is set during the infamous Emergence Day event, where the Locust Horde erupted from underground to wreak havoc on humanity.

Importantly, 2026 will also mark the 20th anniversary of the Gears of War franchise.

In addition to the Gears of War movie, Netflix and The Coalition have also agreed to work on animated series, though there hasn't been any update on this front yet.

Fallout, Gears of War, and maybe even Wolfenstein are all being adapted

While the Gears of War movie might not be launching alongside E-Day in 2026, it's a big time for video game adaptations at Xbox all-around. A Minecraft Movie was a smash hit in theaters earlier this year, racing chicken jockeys past the $950 million mark at the global box office.

Season 2 of the Fallout TV series is set to premiere on December 17 for Prime Video, bringing new weekly episodes for one of the biggest Amazon shows yet.

The first season of the series crossed over 100 million views as of October 2024, and Season 2 looks bigger and bolder in practically every way. The teaser trailer promises plenty of action for the cast across the city of New Vegas, with some interesting secrets for the eagle-eyed.

Amazon is also reported to be interested in a TV adaptation of MachineGames' Wolfenstein reboots, with some of the same production team behind the Fallout TV series also reportedly on the project.

Wolfenstein tells the story of a world where the Nazis won World War 2, with a resistance group fighting back against the now-global regime.

It might be a while before we learn or see more for the Gears of War film, but as a huge fan of the games (as well as a lover of Dune and a resolute Prometheus defender) I'll be waiting eagerly for more information as it comes.

Gears of War: Reloaded is on Game Pass, but ...

One of Microsoft's largest and longest-running Xbox franchises is Gears of War — a brutal, bloody third-person shooter from Epic Games that emerged back in 2006, with Xbox Game Studios' The Coalition taking stewardship of the series over in 2015 and developing new entries ever since.

The original game introduces players to humanity's home world of Sera in the midst of a devastating war against a race of subterranean monsters known as the Locust Horde, putting you in the armored boots of soldiers Marcus Fenix and squadmate Dominic Santiago as they do everything they can to make the Locust fight for every inch of ground they take.

It was remastered once already for Xbox One and Windows PC in 2015 with the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Now, a decade later and one year before Gears of War: E-Day is slated to drop, it's getting a fresh coat of paint once again with Gears of War: Reloaded.

When it releases on August 26, this new version of the game will bring enhanced 4K visuals and resolution, 120 FPS multiplayer, HDR, support for spatial audio, Xbox Play Anywhere, and more to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Steam, with the game also coming to PS5 at launch — a first for the franchise, and a continuation of Microsoft's recent multiplatform strategy with Xbox.

• DEAL: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 1-month memberships are $13.49 at CDKeys, giving you access to Microsoft's service for an amazing discount

There's plenty of interest in this new remaster, and so naturally, many are wondering if they'll be able to play it through Microsoft's buffet-style gaming service Xbox Game Pass. The good news? Since Gears of War: Reloaded is a first-party Xbox game, it will indeed be available to Game Pass members on day one (with Xbox Cloud Gaming playability available to Ultimate subscribers).

The bad news, however, is that it will only be accessible if you have a $19.99/month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (Xbox, PC) membership or a $11.99/month one for PC Game Pass (PC only). People with basic Xbox Game Pass Core or the $14.99 console-specific Xbox Game Pass Standard tiers won't be able to play through Game Pass, as these tiers don't include day one game access.

Keep in mind, though, that you can get Ultimate subscription time for big discounts. For example, you can get a month of Ultimate for just $13.49 at CDKeys thanks to this excellent deal.

How else can you play Gears of War: Reloaded?

Gears of War: Reloaded being playable on Xbox Game Pass is great news for the millions and millions of players subscribed to the service, but not everyone wants to sign up. Luckily, you don't have to, as there are a few other ways you can play the remaster that don't involve Game Pass whatsoever.

Obviously, you have the option of buying it to own permanently on its Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 platforms, with the game's standard MSRP clocking in at $39.99. Something worth noting is that you'll get the biggest bang for your buck by buying on Xbox if you can, as thanks to Xbox Play Anywhere, you'll be able to play on both Xbox and the Xbox on PC app with cross-progression.

If you happen to have owned a digital Xbox copy of 2015's Gears of War: Ultimate Edition before May 5, 2025, you won't have to worry about buying a copy at all, as Microsoft and The Coalition are giving free codes for the game out to these select individuals. These have been/are being delivered through Xbox messages, so be sure to keep an eye on your inbox.

Delta Squad returns with Gears of War: Reloaded, a remaster from Xbox Game Studios and The Coalition that takes players back through the original game on modern gaming hardware.

With this return of the original Gears of War (debuting for the first time on Steam!) comes higher minimum requirements, as the game takes advantage of more recent processors and graphics cards in order to look better than ever before.

Here are all the details on Gears of War: Reloaded's PC requirements that you need to know about.

Gears of War: Reloaded — PC requirements and specs

Below, you'll find the exact details for Gears of War: Reloaded's minimum and recommended PC system requirements.

These minimum requirements are extremely reasonable, and I'd genuinely be shocked if anyone playing PC games in the last five years or so doesn't have hardware well above these specifications.

The recommended requirements bump things up a bit, but are still extremely reasonable overall. Even the most recent GPU listed here (the RTX 2070) debuted almost seven years ago.

Gears of War: Reloaded — How to check your PC specs

So, maybe it's been a minute and you don't remember exactly what processor your system has, or you can't recall if you ever got around to adding some more RAM. Don't worry, it's easy to check. Just follow these steps:

1. Select the Windows taskbar.
2. Type dxdiag in the taskbar.
3. Select dxdiag to see your PC's specifications.
4. Select the System tab for your component details relating to memory (RAM), processors, and your Windows version.
5. Click on Display tab for graphics (GPU) details.

How to upgrade your PC for Gears of War: Reloaded

As mentioned above, the PC requirements for Gears of War: Reloaded are fairly reasonable, and it's extremely unlikely that your gaming PC won't be capable of running the game.

If you are somehow below the requirements (or you meet the minimum, but want to run Gears of War: Reloaded at higher settings), then there are some things you can do to improve your specs by following our various guides below:

• Recommendations: Best pre-built gaming PCs | Best gaming laptops
• Memory: How to upgrade and install RAM in a laptop | How to upgrade and install RAM in a desktop
• Storage: Best SSD for PC | How to upgrade laptop HDD to SSD | Tips to free up space on Windows 11
• CPU: Best CPU for your PC | How to install an Intel CPU in your PC
• GPU: Best graphics cards | How to install a new graphics card
• Overall tips: How to build your PC the right way

Does Gears of War: Reloaded run on gaming handhelds?

While dedicated gaming desktops remain the most popular way of playing PC games, there is a small but growing niche in the form of gaming handhelds. These devices allow players to sacrifice performance for portability, losing the ability to improve most of the internals in exchange for taking games on the go.

Gears of War: Reloaded is slated to launch on Aug. 26, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. Like all Xbox first-party games, it'll be available day one via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Players that buy the game digitally on Xbox can play it on Xbox consoles and PC via Xbox Play Anywhere.

Hey there, Windows Central community! I'm back with another quiz. This time, we're delving into a franchise that most Xbox players know and hold dear with Gears of War.

Ever since the launch of the original Gears of War by Epic Games on the Xbox 360, this franchise has been an Xbox staple, with numerous mainline games as the torch was passed to Xbox Game Studios developer The Coalition.

Set on the world of Sera, Gears of War revolves around humanity's struggles in combat against each other as well as the horrific Locust Horde and later, the Swarm. These games are beloved for their focus on brutal third-person shooting and surprisingly quiet, introspective storytelling.

With Gears of War: Reloaded set to launch on Aug. 26, 2025, and Gears of War: E-Day currently in development, it's the perfect time to test your knowledge of this Xbox series.

How many did you get correct? Would like additional Gears of War-themed quizzes in the future? Let me know!

Rev up your Lancers, because Gears of War: Reloaded is on the way. This upcoming remaster marks the second time the first Gears of War has been ported to newer gaming hardware, building on the work previously done with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition a decade ago.

Preorders are live for Gears of War: Reloaded, and I've got everything you need to know about preordering and jumping in at launch, whether you're a longtime series player or a curious newcomer.

Where to preorder Gears of War: Reloaded

Fortunately, recommending which version of Gears of War: Reloaded to buy is fairly simple, because there's only one. The lone standard edition of Gears of War: Reloaded is $40 USD, and is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5 on Aug. 26, 2025.

As with all Xbox first-party games, Gears of War: Reloaded supports Xbox Play Anywhere, meaning if you buy the game for Xbox consoles or Xbox PC, you'll get a copy that works on the other platform as well at no extra cost.

It's worth noting that for right now, Gears of War: Reloaded is digital-only on Xbox and PC. There is a physical version available, but it's only for PlayStation 5.

Gears of War: Reloaded free upgrade

If you purchased Gears of War: Ultimate Edition digitally before Gears of War: Reloaded was announced on May 5, 2025, you'll be receiving a free upgrade, giving you a copy of Gears of War: Reloaded at no extra cost.

To check and make sure you get your upgrade, go to your Xbox messages section by logging into your Xbox console or Xbox PC app on your computer.

Gears of War: Reloaded available on Xbox Game Pass

Just like other Xbox first-party games, Gears of War: Reloaded is launching day one into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. It'll also be playable through Xbox Cloud for anyone subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, as well as Meta Quest headsets, Samsung and LG Smart TVs, and Windows PC browsers via Xbox.com/play.

Gears of War: Reloaded — Preorder bonuses

While there aren't any special editions of Gears of War: Reloaded, there is a bonus for anyone who preorders. Any players who preorder a copy of the game will get two new multiplayer skins with Adam Fenix and Anya Stroud.

These characters are entirely new for the original Gears of War, expanding the roster of playable multiplayer skins.

Anya appears in Gears of War and Gears of War 2, but was not a playable character in multiplayer or campaign until Gears of War 3, the game where Adam Fenix made his debut. Adam isn't playable in the campaign, but is available in Gears of War 3's multiplayer for players who bought the special edition of the game or a limited edition Xbox 360.

Players who want to stay mobile when playing their games can rejoice, as Gears of War: Reloaded is Steam Deck Verified (thanks, GamingOnLinux).

Now, it's worth noting that the Steam Deck Verified label has been thrown around a bit loosely in recent months, with some games being verified despite not running well, with major performance issues even if settings are turned down.

I wouldn't be too worried about performance for Gears of War: Reloaded however, as The Coalition is one of the most efficient studios around when it comes to optimizing games around different hardware, and one of the entire points of having Gears of War: Reloaded is to bring the game natively to Steam for the first time.

I'm also curious to see exactly how well Gears of War: Reloaded performs on Valve's handheld device.

While I was in L.A. for Summer Game Fest 2025, I stopped by Xbox and I got to play Gears of War: Reloaded on the upcoming Xbox Ally X. This device has significantly more power than the Steam Deck (and is certain to command a more significant price point) but it easily managed to average 75 FPS or higher while running at High settings.

Gears of War: Reloaded is slated to launch on Aug. 26, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. Like all Xbox first-party games, it'll be available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Following its big appearance at the recent Xbox Games Showcase, Gears of War Reloaded is bringing the original game in the series back to life once again.

It was first remastered a decade ago with the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, but this newest remaster will up the ante once again. Expect more technical enhancements to bring it up to scratch with a 2025 title.

The release is currently slated for August 26 on Xbox, PC, cloud, and for the first time, PS5. Ahead of this, two beta weekends are planned on all platforms to showcase the multiplayer mode.

Sounds interesting? Here's how you get in.

When are the Gears of War Reloaded beta weekends?

Whether you're on Xbox, PC, or PS5, the beta weekends are the same for all. Additionally, it will also be live on Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now on all supported devices.

Here's when you can play:

• Weekend one: June 13 3 p.m. ET - June 15 3 p.m ET.
• Weekend two: June 20 3 p.m. ET - June 23 midnight ET (9 p.m. PDT).

How to play the Gears of War Reloaded beta

There are three different ways you can get into the beta.

The first is by preordering a copy of Gears of War Reloaded on any of its supported platforms. The second is by being an active subscriber to either PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

The final method is already owning a copy of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Owners get a free copy of Gears of War Reloaded, and codes for those have already started going out. I got mine a few days ago.

The only caveat is that to play the beta this way, you need to have purchased Gears of War: Ultimate Edition prior to May 5 of this year.

It's also worth pointing out that it appears only digital preorders of Gears of War Reloaded seem to count for access to the multiplayer beta. On Xbox, there are currently no preorders for a physical edition, but there is one for PS5. But this doesn't seem to include access to the beta.

At the time of writing, the Xbox install for the beta is already live. Steam customers may get a code to redeem the install, since it doesn't appear to be live on the store at this time.

For more check out my colleague, Samuel Tolbert's, Gears of War Reloaded hands-on session on the Xbox Ally X from the Xbox Showcase.

Players are headed back to where it all began with Gears of War: Reloaded.

Since the first game launched back in 2006, Gears of War has been one of the biggest Xbox franchises around, with epic campaigns that can be played solo or in co-op alongside brutal multiplayer unlike anything else available.

With Gears of War: Reloaded, that original experience is being brought to modern gaming hardware, letting players experience the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad all over again or for the very first time.

Here is everything you need to know about Gears of War: Reloaded.

When is the release date for Gears of War: Reloaded?

Developed by Epic Games using the studio's Unreal Engine 3 technology, Gears of War launched exclusively on Xbox 360 in November 2006. The game was an instant hit, receiving rave reviews and selling over a million copies in its first two weeks.

The game was ported to PC as part of the ill-fated Games for Windows Live program a year later in November 2007. This port included some extra chapters, greatly extending the length of the game's fifth act.

Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games in 2014, building a first-party studio called The Coalition to lead the series moving forward. In August 2015, The Coalition released Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Xbox One consoles, with a PC port exclusive to the Microsoft Store following on March 1, 2016.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition featured new visuals, rebuilt cutscenes, improved textures, and effects all rendered at 1080p, as well as 60 FPS support on Xbox One in multiplayer. Ultimate Edition also included the chapters that were included in the prior PC version.

Gears of War: Reloaded is now scheduled to arrive on Aug. 26, 2025, marking the second time this game has been remastered.

What is Gears of War: Reloaded?

The original Gears of War was a massive game, changing the way players understand third-person games and shooting, spawning waves of imitators and strongly influencing the cover-based gameplay design of other titles like BioWare's science-fiction role-playing series Mass Effect.

Gears of War features a brutal setting where humanity lives on a planet called Sera. After years of warring against each other over resources, humanity is then invaded from below, with a subterranean race known as the Locust Horde decimating humanity in an event known as Emergence Day, or E-Day.

Developed by The Coalition with assistance from Sumo Interactive and Disbelief, Gears of War: Reloaded features a number of visual and technical improvements over the prior remaster, 2015's Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

Gears of War: Reloaded features 4K resolution, HDR, VRR, and 60 FPS in campaign, with 120 FPS multiplayer support. The game also features zero loading screens in campaign, with improved textures, particle effects, and more.

What platforms is Gears of War: Reloaded coming to?

The original Gears of War launched on Xbox 360 before being ported to Windows PC. Similarly, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launched on Xbox One before getting a PC port.

Eschewing this kind of staggered rollout, Gears of War: Reloaded is launching across Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PlayStation 5 all at once. Notably, this is the first time a Gears of War game has ever launched on a PlayStation console.

PC players can choose to play Gears of War: Reloaded on Steam or via the Xbox PC app.

What price is Gears of War: Reloaded?

Gears of War: Reloaded is slated to launch with a $40 price tag on all platforms, meaning it won't be a "full price" game. While Microsoft announced in 2025 that some Xbox games will eventually launch at $80, the company is still using a range of different prices for different games, something sometimes referred to as "variable pricing."

It's important to note that Xbox players that purchased a digital copy of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition prior to May 5 (which is when the game was announced) will get a free upgrade, with a code for Gears of War: Reloaded sent to their Xbox accounts shortly before launch.

As an Xbox first-party game, Gears of War: Reloaded is also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass at launch. It'll also be available via Xbox Cloud Gaming for anyone subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Does Gears of War: Reloaded have crossplay?

Crossplay has become a huge factor in multiplayer games, letting players engage in co-op or compete regardless of where they like to play.

In addition to local two-player split-screen, Gears of War: Reloaded supports full crossplay, meaning you can play together regardless of if you're on Xbox, PlayStation, or PC.

Players on non-Xbox platforms are not required to use a Microsoft account, but signing in with one grants full cross-progression, meaning your campaign and multiplayer progress can be carried with you across platforms.

The long-gestating Gears of War movie at Netflix is still happening, and now, the film is being helmed by David Leitch.

The Hollywood Reporter shared the news on Thursday, confirming that in addition to directing, David Leitch and his wife and producing partner Kelly McCormick would be producing the film. Also producing is The Coalition, the Xbox studio that leads development on Gears of War games.

Leitch is known for his work directing a number of action-heavy films, including 2017's Atomic Blonde, 2022's Bullet Train, and 2024's The Fall Guy.

Netflix and The Coalition first announced that the two companies were working on an adaptation of the iconic Xbox series back in November 2022. At the time, Netflix noted that the plan was for a live-action film to happen first, followed by an animated series.

Former Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski told the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast that while there were initial plans for a Gears of War movie years ago, they fell through as the film likely would've been rated PG-13.

This also comes as The Coalition is working on more than one Gears of War game. Gears of War: Reloaded, a remaster of the original 2006 game, is slated to launch in August 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and (in a series first) PlayStation 5.

Further out is Gears of War: E-Day, the next mainline game in the franchise and a prequel that is set during the titular "Emergence Day" event that sees large swathes of humanity killed by the brutal Locust horde.

Outside of Gears of War, adaptations of Xbox properties into film and TV are continuing to grow. A Minecraft Movie has crossed $900 million at the box office, while the second season of Amazon MGM Studios' acclaimed Fallout TV series is slated to premiere in December.

Out of the blue, Microsoft has decided to keep the avalanche of Xbox games rolling, revealing Gears of War: Reloaded on Monday via Xbox Wire.

This new remaster of Gears of War features new visual improvements, as well as enhanced framerates in multiplayer, growing the list of Xbox Series X|S games with 120 FPS support. Gears of War: Reloaded is being developed by The Coalition, with support from Sumo Interactive and Disbelief.

Most notable of all? It's coming to PlayStation alongside Xbox and PC, continuing Microsoft's push into multiplatform game launches, such as Playground Games' Forza Horizon 5, which launched on PlayStation 5 back in April.

Here are all the new features coming with Gears of War: Reloaded.

• 4K resolution
• 60 FPS in Campaign
• 120 FPS in Multiplayer
• High Dynamic Range (HDR)
• Dolby Vision & 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos
• 7.1.4 3D Spatial Audio
• Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)
• 4K assets and remastered textures
• Enhanced post-processing visual effects
• Improved shadows and reflections
• Super resolution with improved anti-aliasing
• Zero loading screens during Campaign

Gears of War: Reloaded is slated to launch at $40 USD on August 26, 2025, at which point it'll be available across Xbox Series X|S (as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming), Windows PC (via the Xbox app and Steam), and PlayStation 5.

Naturally, the game supports full cross-play, so you'll be able to team up with a friend in Delta Squad no matter which platform you're playing on. There's also cross-progression, though this will require signing in on Steam or PlayStation with a Microsoft account.

As an Xbox first-party game, it'll also be included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Any Xbox players that own Gears of War: Ultimate Edition digitally will receive a free upgrade.

Looking ahead, The Coalition is continuing to work on Gears of War: E-Day, the next mainline game in the Gears of War franchise.

Xbox Game Studios and The Coalition's upcoming shooter Gears of War: E-Day is getting some support from Polish developer People Can Fly, with the latter sharing details on the development partnership on Monday.

“Returning to collaborate on the next chapter of this legendary saga is both a privilege and an exciting opportunity to build upon the intense, visceral action and rich storytelling that fans have come to love. We are deeply grateful for our partners’ trust and support on this journey," says People Can Fly CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski.

In addition to providing assistance to Epic Games on the original Gears of War trilogy, People Can Fly was the lead developer on 2013's Gears of War Judgment, a story focused on supporting character Damon Baird. After separating from Epic Games, People Can Fly developed Outriders, a third-person co-op game published by Square Enix.

“Gears of War: E-Day is not just our next major game; it’s a return to what makes Gears of War games special and authentic. We’re pleased to be partnering with the talented folks at People Can Fly who have been a part of our franchise’s legacy for so long," said Mike Crump, studio head of The Coalition.

First revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, Gears of War: E-Day is the next mainline title in the iconic Xbox franchise, framed as a prequel during Emergence Day, the kickoff of the Human-Locust war. Gears of War: E-Day again stars Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, the main protagonists of the first three games.

Returning to the roots of the franchise

This partnership is thematically fitting, since just as Gears of War: E-Day is explicitly meant to evoke the themes and mood of the original trilogy (especially the first game) so too was People Can Fly lending a hand when the series began.

Hopefully we'll be learning more about Gears of War: E-Day soon. We know it's being developed using Unreal Engine 5 and that The Coalition felt compelled to return to this period of time in the franchise, but there's a lot of other questions that need to be answered.

In addition to helping out with Gears of War: E-Day, People Can Fly is also working on a game of its own with Xbox Game Studios. Codenamed Project Maverick, the project is based on an IP owned by Microsoft with a budget at the time of announcement of between $30-$50 million. Little else is known at this time, but it wouldn't shock me if this is a Gears of War spinoff title of some kind.

Gears of War: E-Day does not have a release date at this time. Whenever it does launch, it will presumably be available on Xbox Series X|S consoles and Windows PC. As an Xbox first-party game, it'll also be available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

One of the most iconic Xbox franchises is headed back to its start. 

Gears of War has a long history on Xbox, with the original trilogy and a spinoff being developed for the Xbox 360 by Epic Games and People Can Fly, respectively. In 2014, Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games, with first-party studio The Coalition taking up the mantle of the series, developing a new slate of games in the franchise for the Xbox One generation. 

After launching Gears 5 DLC and an Xbox Series X|S upgrade in 2020, The Coalition opted to go quiet, focusing on learning and understanding Unreal Engine 5 instead of trying to quickly get a game out. Now, after years investing in a new tech pipeline, The Coalition's next game is known. Revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, the next game in the series is called Gears of War: E-Day. I've gathered up everything you need to know about it.

What is Gears of War: E-Day?

After Microsoft acquired Gears of War in 2014, The Coalition (formerly known as Black Tusk Studios) got to work on the series, remastering the original Xbox 360 title for Xbox One and Windows PC with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition in 2015. The following year, the studio shipped Gears of War 4, which continued the story from 2011's Gears of War 3 with a new generation of protagonists. 

In 2019, The Coalition launched Gears 5, a game that introduced open world elements to the narrative structure. 2020 saw the launch of Gears 5: Hivebusters, a DLC focused on a different group of characters, as well as an Xbox Series X|S upgrade for Gears 5. The team also assisted Splash Damage to launch Gears Tactics, an XCOM-esque prequel adventure. 

Following the completion of that packed slate, The Coalition took some time off, focusing on studying Unreal Engine 5 and learning exactly what the engine was capable of. During this time, the studio also began to work as a support team, providing assistance to other Xbox first-party studios, particularly other teams working in Unreal Engine 5 such as Undead Labs with State of Decay 3 and The Initiative with Perfect Dark.

Finally, during Xbox Games Showcase 2024, the team revealed its next project, which would be a new Gears of War game. Unexpectedly, it was not Gears 6, but instead, Gears of War: E-Day. This game is taking full advantage of Unreal Engine 5, pushing the level of what's possible in graphical fidelity. 

“Our ambition is to, once again, set a new standard in technical excellence,” says The Coalition's studio technical director Kate Rayner, via Xbox Wire. “We have fully modernized Gears from the ground up, infusing the DNA of Gears with the full capabilities of modern gaming technology. Every character, environment, and animation in ‘Gears of War: E-Day‘ has been completely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, allowing us to portray the Gears universe with unprecedented detail and fidelity.” 

Is Gears of War: E-Day a prequel?

The two previous games developed by The Coalition, Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, began a new story for the franchise, taking place decades after Gears of War 3 while introducing characters like JD Fenix and Kait Diaz. The most recent game in the series, Gears Tactics, was a strategy-themed spinoff starring Kait's dad with development led by Splash Damage, though The Coalition was still involved. 

Despite being a prequel story and going back to the earliest point in the franchise yet — bar a brief playable flashback of the Pendulum Wars in Gears of War 4 — Gears of War: E-Day is not a spinoff. 

“It’s going to feel like a new Gears game, because that’s what it is,” creative director Matt Searcy says. “It’s us revisiting the tone and the feeling of what makes Gears great, but we’re tapping into new techniques, new processes, and new technology that’s going to make the gameplay feel better than ever. It’s going to be awesome, a game that feels both truly new, and authentically Gears.”  

"E-Day is an origin story," Nicole Fawcette says, speaking in an interview with Windows Central, "it's the origin story of the bond that defines the franchise, which is Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago's friendship. When you first meet them, they're not the same Marcus and Dom you know. In Gears 1, they've already spent 14 years fighting the Locust." 

Part of this approach is making the iconic Locust enemies more horrific. As this is humanity's first contact with the violent subterranean species, they aren't familiar with how they fight or operate, meaning this will be a dark and gritty game.

“We transformed the drone into something fearsome, physically intimidating, and utterly brutal,” says art director Aryan Hanbeck. “Getting the drone right was crucial; everything else with the Locust we’re scaling up from there.” 

What platforms is Gears of War: E-Day coming to?

Gears of War: E-Day is a first-party Xbox game, and while platforms haven't technically been announced, it's extremely safe to assume that it'll be available across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, with the latter including the Xbox PC app and Steam.

Is Gears of War: E-Day coming to Xbox Game Pass?

As an Xbox first-party game, Gears of War: E-Day will be included day one in Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft has doubled down on this approach, and continues to bring all first-party games from its studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios to Xbox Game Pass on day one. 

All the prior Gears of War games are also available on Xbox Game Pass. Gears of War, 2, and 3, are playable on Xbox Series X|S consoles through backward compatibility, while Gears of War 4, Gears 5, and Gears Tactics are available on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. 

When is Gears of War: E-Day's release date?

Right now, Gears of War: E-Day does not have a release date or expected release year. 

While The Coalition shipped multiple games in a span of just a few years last generation, game development is taking longer and longer for big titles this generation. The team also hasn't been working on Gears of War: E-Day since it shipped Hivebusters. Instead, as mentioned above, the studio took some time to focus on learning Unreal Engine 5, supporting other Xbox teams, and studying what would really be needed for the next Gears of War game. 

Personally, I'd say a safe expectation for Gears of War: E-Day would be for it to arrive at some point in 2026. 

What you need to know

• The last mainline Gears of War game with development led by The Coalition was Gears 5, which launched in 2019 on Xbox One and Windows PC. 
• The Coalition also released a free Xbox Series X|S enhancement for the game in 2020, alongside the paid Hivebusters DLC. 
• After years of silence, The Coalition emerged during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 to reveal Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel adventure featuring a much younger Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.

We're going back to the very beginning.

The Coalition closed out the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, revealing a trailer for the next Gears of War game. Despite speculation, it's not Gears 6. Instead, The Coalition is working on Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel focused on the most infamous event in all of Gears of War's bloody history. You can check out the announcement trailer below:

This trailer was built entirely in-engine, with The Coalition taking full advantage of Unreal Engine 5 to push what's visually possible. There's no release date or release window right now, or even any mention of platforms, but as it's an Xbox first-party game, we can of course expect Gears of War: E-Day to launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.

Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel, but the story will continue further

Sharing more on Xbox Wire, The Coalition confirms that this isn't some small spin-off, it's the next mainline game. Even so, that doesn't mean the team is moving away from the current-day Gears story, which was most recently touched on with the 2019 title Gears 5.

“We realized that a lot of the words we use to describe the franchise were what our fans also use, phrases like brotherhood, brutality, pathos, awe” says creative director Matt Searcy. “Why E-Day?  That’s the moment it all comes together. It’s the heart of the Gears universe. Everything that happens is shaped by this day.”  

“We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that were told,” says brand director Fawcette. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, and this one just felt too good to miss.”  

Analysis: There's something in my eye

There's a handful of franchises you grow up with, games that mean something truly special to you because of the time and manner in which you experienced them. Gears of War is one such franchise for me. This trailer was absolutely stellar, and I'm thrilled The Coalition is going to be exploring Emergence Day in the next mainline Gears of War title.

I'm also happy the team isn't abandoning the story that is waiting past Gears 5. I loved that game, and I want to see where Kait's narrative is leading her. But I'm more than happy that we are going to be taking a detour along the way. 

What you need to know

• Liam McIntyre, the voice actor for JD Fenix from the Gears of War series, has posted a comment on Twitter/X implying the developers of the flagship Xbox franchise, could be announcing a new game in June 2024.
• The last mainline in the Gears of Wars series was Gears 5 released in 2019 and there hasn't been a new game released since 2020's Gears Tactics spin-off.
• Gears of War is a world-renowned series that revolutionized the third-person shooter genre and is one of the Xbox platform's flagship video game franchises.

On April 24, 2024, Liam McIntyre, a voice actor who played the role JD Fenix from the Gears of War series, posted a comment on Twitter/X indicating we could be hearing a new installment announced soon. 

According to the post (via @IdleSloth84_) Liam was replying to a fan asking whether JD Fenix is confirmed alive or dead in the franchise's ongoing canon narrative and he replied:

This statement could be hinting that Microsoft and The Coalition may be announcing a new title in the Gears of War franchise later this year in June, most likely at the Summer Game Fest event on June 7, 2024, or the Xbox June Showcase event in June.

Analysis: What could the new Gears of War title be?

It has been a long time since the world-famous Gears of War franchised the gaming industry with its presence as the last mainline title, Gears 5, was released in 2019 and the last game overall, Gears Tactics, was released in 2020. Now that four to five years have passed, I'd say it's high time that one of the cornerstones of the Xbox's gaming library made a comeback.

As for what this new title could be, it's anybody's guess at this point. It could be Gears 6, a sequel to Gears Tactics, or a brand-new spin-off focusing on the Hivebusters group seen in Gear 5's DLC, Gears 5: Hivebusters. Perhaps they could be announcing multiple new titles at once and make all the above predictions happen? 

Either way, we at Windows Central will be keeping a close eye in June to see if this comment turns out to be true and The Coalition reveals the next installment of the Gears of War series.