Industry

Gears of War: E-Day reportedly cost Xbox over $500 million to make, before marketing

By PPRGaming · October 22, 2026

Gears of War: E-Day screenshot of a Locust horde with glowing eyes gathered in a red-lit cavern
Image: The Coalition / Xbox via Pure Xbox

Half a billion dollars. That’s what one source familiar with Xbox’s business told Kotaku Gears of War: E-Day cost to make, and that’s before marketing. Microsoft didn’t respond to Kotaku’s request for comment.

Why it matters: E-Day has the best Metacritic score the series has seen since the original Xbox 360 trilogy, but the sales estimates are soft:

  • About 230,000 copies and $37 million in its first week, according to Alinea Analytics, and a big chunk of that was Game Pass subscribers paying $30 for the Premium Edition early-access upgrade.
  • Fewer than 100,000 copies on Steam so far, by the same estimates.
  • No PS5 version. Xbox made E-Day a console exclusive earlier this year. Kotaku’s math says matching Gears of War: Reloaded’s estimated 684,000 PS5 sales would have added only about $33 million after Sony’s cut.

According to Kotaku’s source, E-Day was unlikely to earn back its cost on any combination of platforms, but as an exclusive it could help bring players back to Xbox.

Not everyone buys the number. Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson said back in June the game cost over $400 million. Windows Central’s Jez Corden pushed back then, arguing The Coalition also builds Unreal Engine 5 tech for other Xbox teams, so not all of its spending belongs to E-Day (Pure Xbox has the back-and-forth). Forbes’ Paul Tassi calls the figure plausible, pointing to the roughly $315 million Spider-Man 2 cost according to the 2023 Insomniac leak.

PPR take: Whatever the exact figure, the gap between “great reviews” and “great business” has never looked wider. This lands a day after EA closed BioWare, and budgets like this are a big part of why studios keep getting hit.

Sources