Gears of War: E-Day cost Microsoft more than $500 million to make, according to a new report, and that figure leaves out marketing. The claim surfaced on October 22, two weeks after the game launched as an Xbox console exclusive. Microsoft has not commented.
If the number holds, E-Day sits among the most expensive games ever made. It also puts fresh weight on a question fans have asked since June: why would Xbox shelve a PS5 version that was reportedly already finished?
What the Report Says About the E-Day Budget
Kotaku’s number comes from one “source familiar with Xbox’s business,” who said spending “was over $500 million, and that’s before you include marketing.” Kotaku and Forbes both asked Microsoft for comment. Neither got an answer.
Chris Dring of The Game Business backed the figure in public, saying that from what he’d been told it was “very true.” For scale, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 cost roughly $300 million, a number that only came out through the studio’s 2023 data leak.
Work on E-Day began around 2020 at The Coalition, a Vancouver studio of about 300 people, with People Can Fly helping on development. Six years of AAA production at that headcount adds up fast.
Why Some Insiders Think $500 Million Is Too High
Not everyone accepts the figure. Back in June, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson said he’d heard the game cost “upwards of $400 million,” and Jez Corden of Windows Central pushed back hard.
Corden’s argument is about accounting. The Coalition builds tools and Unreal Engine tech that Forza, Fable and other Xbox teams rely on, and he called the studio the “technological glue for all of Xbox,” as reported by Pure Xbox.
“You can’t really say ‘Gears: E-Day has a $400 million budget’. That’s not even the case,” Corden said.
So the half-billion figure may fold in shared studio work. Without an official number from Microsoft, nobody outside Xbox can settle it.
The PS5 Version That Never Left the Drive
The PlayStation angle started before launch. A PEGI rating published just ahead of the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2026 listed a PS5 version of E-Day.
At the show, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed E-Day for Xbox Series X|S and PC only. Shortly after, journalist Jeff Grubb reported that the PS5 build was already complete and had been shelved after a late internal call, with the finished version sitting on an internal Xbox drive, per LEVEL UP.
That made E-Day an odd one out. Xbox had brought several big first-party games to PS5 by then, including Gears of War: Reloaded in 2025.
Did Cancelling the PS5 Port Cost Microsoft Real Money?
Kotaku’s math says not much. Gears of War: Reloaded sold about 684,000 copies on PS5, and if E-Day matched that, Microsoft would have netted roughly $33 million after Sony’s platform cut.
Against a $500 million bill, that covers about 6.6% of the cost. Kotaku’s view is that no single extra platform was going to rescue the budget, so Xbox kept the exclusive for brand value.
There’s another way to read those numbers. A PS5 release at Reloaded’s level would have nearly doubled E-Day’s estimated first-week revenue of $37 million, and the game would still be hundreds of millions short.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Reported development cost (before marketing) | $500 million+ | Kotaku source |
| Earlier insider estimate | $400 million+ | Insider Gaming |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 cost, for comparison | ~$300 million | 2023 Insomniac leak |
| Estimated first-week sales | ~230,000 copies | Alinea Analytics |
| Estimated first-week revenue | ~$37 million | Alinea Analytics |
| Estimated net from a Reloaded-level PS5 launch | ~$33 million | Kotaku estimate |
How Gears of War: E-Day Is Selling So Far
Alinea Analytics estimates E-Day sold around 230,000 copies in its first week for roughly $37 million. A big chunk of that came from Game Pass subscribers paying $30 for the Premium Edition upgrade and early access.
The game launched on October 6 straight into Game Pass on Xbox and PC. That makes copy sales a weak scorecard, since subscribers can play without buying anything.
Microsoft hasn’t shared player counts yet. Gears 5 announced more than 3 million players at launch in 2019, which is the bar fans will hold E-Day to.
Quality isn’t the issue. E-Day holds a Metacritic score in the high 80s, the series’ best in over 15 years, according to 80 Level.
What This Means for Xbox Exclusives
Xbox has told players to “expect signature exclusives from us every year.” E-Day is the first big test of that promise, and a price tag north of $500 million makes it a costly one.
The timing is rough as well. Microsoft has been cutting staff and consolidating its game studios this year, while Sony is reportedly pulling its single-player games back from PC to protect PS5 exclusivity.
Ballooning budgets are an industry-wide problem. EA’s decision to shut down BioWare and cancel the next Mass Effect shows what happens when spending outruns returns, and very few releases can match the pull of GTA 6’s record pre-order numbers.
PlayStation fans who wanted E-Day can still follow how Sony’s own blockbusters are performing, like Marvel’s Wolverine and its strong physical sales. For now, the finished PS5 build of E-Day stays where Grubb said it was, on an internal Xbox drive.
