Gears Of War: E-Day really did cost half a billion dollars to make says source

Gears Of War: E-Day has reportedly sold less on Xbox and PC than the first game’s remaster did on PlayStation 5 (Metro) Another source has verified reports of Gears Of War: E-Day’s ridiculous budget, although there is some explanation for it. A few weeks ago, it was claimed that Gears Of War: E-Day had a budget of $500 million (about £374 million) and that didn’t even include marketing. This would make the game more expensive than any known PlayStation 5 exclusive, including Spider-Man 2, which cost $300 million (£237 million) to make according to the Insomniac hack. The alleged budget has since been verified by other sources and reported sales figures suggest it hasn’t even sold half a million copies yet, which makes it seemingly impossible that it will ever turn a profit. Over the weekend, in a YouTube video discussing EA’s decision to close BioWare and cancel the new Mass Effect, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier touched upon the $500 million figure for E-Day and called it ‘a real number, that is real.’ He added, ‘That’s what [AAA] games cost to make, especially in North America these days. And it’s driving these game companies to make layoffs, to do cost-cutting, to move development outside of North America in a lot of cases, and to focus only on the biggest franchises that are as… have as little risk as possible.’ Had this figure not come from reliable sources, it’d be hard to believe. $500 million is a ridiculous amount of money to be spending on not just Gears Of War – a franchise long past its peak – but an Xbox console exclusive, when the hardware has never been less popular. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. However, it has been suggested that most of that budget was actually operational costs for developer The Coalition. This is according to Derek Reese, a former senior product manager at Xbox. ‘So much of that cost is The Coalition being on the hook for the Microsoft branch of Unreal [Engine] and one of the flagship titles. I should know, I tried to get leadership to support a plan to have other studios adopt it and write off the support costs,’ explained Reese on Bluesky. The Coalition has been described as a favourite of Microsoft’s, which would explain why it’s mostly been spared by the company’s continuous layoffs. Its experience with Unreal Engine means it can support other Xbox projects, having contributed to the development of Halo Infinite and that fancy The Matrix Awakens tech demo. Microsoft will likely never clarify how much of that $500 million went solely to E-Day’s development, or how much it’s spending keeping The Coalition going, but hopefully it sees the studio’s work and talent as too important to lose or risk downsizing. Although recently it was willing to cut id Software to pieces and lose years of institutional knowledge. It’s not yet clear if Microsoft is at all happy with E-Day’s performance. Reported sales figures from The Verge are dismal, suggesting it only sold aroud 400,000 copies across Xbox and PC. By comparison, last year’s Gears Of War remaster is said to have sold 684,000 copies on PlayStation 5 alone – and that wasn’t considered to have been a major hit. The Coalition’s studio head Mike Crump has said that E-Day’s success is measured not only by sales but by Xbox Game Pass engagement and other metrics, but these sales figures only further support the idea that Microsoft’s decision to pivot back to console exclusives hasn’t and won’t be beneficial to the Xbox business. There’s evidence to suggest that E-Day was planned for a PlayStation 5 release, only for it to be cancelled. It’s not clear exactly when this decision was made, but it means some of that development budget was ultimately wasted on a version of the game that may never see the light of day. Work on E-Day likely began not long after Gears 5 launched in 2019, so The Coalition would’ve started with the intent of only making it for Xbox and PC, only to start preparing a PlayStation 5 version once Xbox opted to go multiplatform in 2024. E-Day was announced later that year, albeit only for Xbox and PC, which no doubt made it easier for Xbox to scrap the PlayStation 5 version since it was never officially confirmed. The Coalition is already working on an E-Day sequel (Xbox Game Studios) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Why I bought Gears Of War: E-Day despite not being a fan of the series – Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: Roblox sees decline in players as company brags it can import ‘any game’ with AI Arrow MORE: PS5 console sales after six years are stronger than PS4 and PS3 GameCentral Get the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.