Gears Of War Creator Shares His Thoughts On E-Day Multiplayer

Cliffy B Says Gears Of War: E-Day Really Needs To Nerf Shotguns And Wallbouncing Published Aug 9, 2026, 9:22 AM EDT George is the Lead News Editor for TheGamer, and has been working in the industry since 2021 after graduating from the University of South Wales with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He has also previously written for RPG Site, WhatCulture, and PlayStation Lifestyle. George is an expert on platformers, action games, and fighters, but tends to play as many releases as possible. This hands-on experience lets him dive into gaming communities and follow the latest trends. Some of the games George has extensively covered first-hand include Dead Rising, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Gears of War co-creator Cliff Bleszinski has shared an in-depth breakdown of his thoughts on E-Day’s multiplayer, which he thinks needs to pivot more towards casual players. Earlier this week saw the start of Gears of War: E-Day’s open beta, which let players jump into the game’s multiplayer modes and try them out. For the most part, it seems like Gears fans are having a good time with what E-Day is bringing to the table, as most of the community seems pretty happy with the beta as a whole. In fact, E-Day’s open beta has already managed to become the most-played Gears game on Steam, which bodes well for the full game’s release. While that’s all good news, it seems that not everyone likes the direction that Gears has taken, as series creator Cliffy B has shared his thoughts on what he considers one of the game’s big issues. Cliffy B Thinks Gears Of War: E-Day Needs Some Major Nerfs And Yes, He’s Talking About Shotgun And Wall-Bouncing As pointed out by Redditor Expensive_Reality967 on the Gears of War subreddit, Cliff Bleszinski, widely known as Cliffy B, shared a lengthy breakdown of his E-Day thoughts over on Facebook. The analysis comes from “extensive viewing of Twitch streamers and YouTube videos” of the game’s multiplayer, but seemingly not from playing it. Cliffy B says that there’s a “chunk’ of Gears players who only play by wallbouncing and using the shotgun to absolutely “dominate”, and that, while it’s fun to watch and perform, it doesn’t “make sense and work” for multiplayer games. The Gears creator says this is because the skill gap between those who play the game as “intended” versus the bouncers is far too big. This popular exploit that’s been around for a long time in Gears is “not the way the game was meant to be played”, which he points out isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless it’s become “the entire game” as it has in E-Day. Cliffy B thinks that playing like this breaks the game for anyone trying to experience it normally, since there’s no reason to do anything but shotgun and wall bounce. Alongside forcing the devs to really tune skill-based matchmaking so that newer players aren’t instantly put off of anything other than Horde mode. If it were up to him, Bleszinski says he’d “nerf the S**T” out of wallbouncing in regular modes and make a playlist specifically for it, which actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Bleszinski also says that executions in Gears are a “huge waste of time and money” since no player ever uses them, which ties into this whole argument. Even with those criticisms in mind, Bleszinski praises The Coalition for a successful beta weekend, and points out that game development is hard, especially when you’re making a sequel that risks alienating fans with whatever it does. To be honest, it’s a very well-measured take that Gears fans even seem to be agreeing with. Gears of War: E-Day Systems Released October 6, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) The Coalition Publisher(s) Xbox Game Studios Engine Unreal Engine 5 Genre(s) Third-Person Shooter, Action, Adventure, Horror