Gears of War: E-Day early access is live now for Premium Edition players and Game Pass subscribers with the Premium Upgrade. To mark the occasion, The Coalition released the Launch Gameplay Trailer, set to Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
Early Access Timing, Platforms, and Price
Early access began worldwide October 1 at 8:00 a.m. PT / 15:00 UTC. The full worldwide launch follows October 6 at 8:00 a.m. PT / 15:00 UTC. The game is available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Steam, with cloud gaming through Game Pass Ultimate and GeForce NOW. It joins the Disc to Digital program. Pre-orders cost $69.99 and include an Xbox gift card, the Exfil Dom Character Skin, and the Exfil Weapon Skin Set at launch. The full achievement list is available now for players planning their run.
Campaign and Multiplayer
Gears of War: E-Day is set fourteen years before the original game. Players join Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in an origin-story campaign as the Locust Horde first erupts from below. The campaign carries a darker, grittier tone with reimagined enemies, and supports solo play, two-player split-screen, and up to four players online.
Multiplayer includes Horde Siege, a reimagined version of the Gears PvE wave-survival mode, and a refined Versus PvP mode. Horde Siege runs across larger maps with more players and bigger battles. Players pick an Assault, Marksman, Medic, or Breacher class and drop in as a four-player squad, teaming with other squads to complete shared objectives and fight world bosses. Surviving a match earns rewards, customization unlocks, and loadout upgrades for the next run. Versus brings new maps and refined four-versus-four modes, with Ranked and Social playlists and modernized controls that add jump, vault, slide, and flank movement.
Performance and Additional Launch Content
The game runs in Unreal Engine 5, with 4K resolution and up to 60FPS across Campaign and Multiplayer.
For Liquid Death Energy, uploading a receipt unlocks an in-game chainsaw pose. Prince Street Pizza‘s Emergence Pie is a Gears-themed pizza available across the United States and Canada for a limited time. Launch apparel is available from the Xbox Game Studios Shop and its partners. The companion book “The Art and Making of Gears of War: E-Day” from Insight Editions is out now. The Original Soundtrack by Adam Lastiwka launches October 6, with the first track “Emergence” streaming today. Limited Edition Xbox Wireless Controllers are available now, and a controller dock arrives October 9. For PC players, the 8BitDo E-Day Retro 87 Keyboard and Retro R8 Mouse are targeted for October 30.
