Rumour: Xbox Could Be Targeting A 2025 Release For Gears Of War: E-Day

If it's the big holiday 2025 release for Xbox I'd be very happy with that. Would be much sooner than I'm expecting tbh, right now my guess would be early-mid 2026.

If they blow their whole load in 2025 there will be fewer titles to launch with potential new hardware in 2026.

But seriously their roadmap is incredible. If Gears is really 2025 then it’s time to get excited. I still think it will be 2026 though.

I feel like I need a podcast or something to outlet all my thoughts on their upcoming games. So much to discuss.

When a release year isn't given, that has always meant 2+ years away in the past so I figure this'll be a next gen launch title alongside FH6.

half these "leakers " are full of it

If and a big if, if it is 2025 you'll be talking Fall 2025 at the earliest I think.

Considering the gap between Hivebusters and now, it's seems possible it could be out next year.

The game Im the most hyped for right now. And I dont see any game topping it for me.

So, I've said a number of times that with Gears 4 and 5, the game was revealed one year, only to have the full release the following. However, with 4 and 5, the reveals featured gameplay, which clearly E-Day did not, which tends to make me think that the game is too early in development to show gameplay, and thus is not going to release within the next 12 months or so.

I strongly suspect that E-Day will be a next generation launch title for the next Xbox console, which is rumoured to be landing in 2026. This will also tie in nicely with the release of the film too. Netflix are also making an animated show, for which we also do not yet have a release date. Nothing will hype E-Day and the next Xbox console more than the show and the film, so I expect them all to release around the same time, and let's face it, Xbox needs the exposure.

As for Tom Warren, I don't believe him! Not for one moment did any of these 'insiders' suggest that E-Day even existed. All the rumours were of a Marcus Fenix remastered collection, which they could perhaps be forgiven for having got wrong based on E-Day featuring Marcus and Dom, but even so, now claiming to have known about it, and also when it release smells distinctly of bull droppings! Immediately prior to the Xbox showcase all the 'insiders' were saying that we were going to see a reveal of Gears 6, which again was clearly wrong. I have absolutely no faith in these people knowing much more than I do, and I know nowt...

As excited as I am for E-Day, I don't have a clue when to expect it. We haven't really seen anything from the Coalition themselves since Hivebusters back in 2020, but we know they have also been assisting many others with their 'UE5' expertise - everything from the Matrix Awakens to helping internal studios.

There has been numerous rumours of a Marcus Fenix 'trilogy' remaster too, the First 3 games, 2 of which didn't release on PC, which could release before we get this 'prequel'. I think it would make sense to release the trilogy first so people get the full impact of the Prequel.

This could be further along than people think, just because they could have been working on it longer than expected. After all, we kept hearing that they were helping Studio's, possibly working on a Remaster or working on Gears 6 so when its 'revealed' to be GoW:E-Day, completely different to what people expected, and a CGi trailer too, it seems 'years' away.

With the next 6 months looking 'packed' with games, and 2025 looking to carry on delivering, I am not getting 'excited' by this yet. It's certainly one of the Games that will keep me Subscribed to Game Pass for the foreseeable future knowing that the games are coming....

Even if true, it's only a target. Much more likely to be 2026. I'm happy for them take all the time over it they need to make it something amazing.

@BAMozzy The aesthetic and styling of most assets/characters/models between Gears games is very similar. Something like a Retro Lancer created for a theoretical Gears 2 Remake could also easily be used for E-Day. I think they have explored all the ideas (Gears 6, Gears 2 Remake,...) before landing on this.

@JoyfulFire My theory is that it is recently moved to 2026. Microsoft probably feels that between Fable, Doom TDA and CoD 2025 they already have enough for 2025 anyway. Also all games in 2025 will be swallowed by GTA6 anyway.

I truly hope this is true. Xbox has yet to have a fully stacked year. Even their best year this gen 2021 their 1st half was ***** awful with not releasing stuff and the last 2 years have been very light in the first half. If they can get doom dark ages, GOW E-Day, fable, and south of midnight all released in a separate quarter it would be great to show they finally are having a consistent release schedule.

Nice, been a while since a Gears came out and it's probably my favorite MS IP. No wonder, RE4 was one of my favorite GCN games and it was a massive influence on the franchise. I hope this rumor is true!

As long as it has a physical release as in disc + box and game fully on the disc. I’ll pre-order whenever it becomes available.

And please please do a physical release of the real Gears of War games 1-3.

Hoping so, would have been 6 years in late 2025 since the last main entry.
If the whole team had been left along for gears E day after gears 5 it would have probably been this year late 2024.
But we know what companies and studios are like, they get involved in other in house projects and the coalition helps other Xbox studios, but I’m still hopeful for late 2025.
They are a big studio and very talented as well.

@K1LLEGAL except it wouldn’t be their full load. Still have OW2, clockwork, es6, blade, and whatever publishing is working with 2nd party teams. Xbox hasn’t had a full year of releases at all this gen and we are past the halfway point. If they are releasing new hardware in 2026 they need to show out next year. We as fans have been waiting for years for a year like that. It would also help if they did release everything only a month apart and space it out. One of Xbox’s biggest blunders was dropping halo infinite so close to horizon 5 when infinite needed more time and it took the shine from the masterpiece that was horizon 5.

@BrilliantBill However, with their 'new' (although now over a Decade old) policy of bringing their games day/date to PC and the fact that some games were never released on PC, they would address that with a Remake of at least 2 and 3.

Gears 1 had a PC port and an Ultimate Edition released on XB1 but Gears 2 and 3 were never released to PC so I do think that it would make sense to bring a remastered trilogy out first so that PC Players can play through the whole trilogy before E-Day releases.

I think the 'prequel' would have more impact for those Gears fans that have played the Trilogy, met the Characters etc. Retro Lancers maybe aren't 'retro' in this setting but again, maybe things from Gears 2/3 would help immerse and have more impact if everyone had played the Trilogy. We could get to meet Maria for example...

I'm skeptical of 2025. I think it slips to 26 and is held for holiday season to launch with the new consoles.

The Coalition have said that the origins of the Chainsaw Lancer will be explored in E-Day, @BAMozzy, though clearly in the trailer it was a Retro Lancer on display. Personally, I dislike the Retro Lancer, so the fact that the Chainsaw Lancer will feature is good news.

I am curious to know what enemies we will see in E-Day though, as many were missing in 4 and 5, which obviously featured enemies that were not in the original 4 games. I am wracking my brain to try and recall if they knew what a Berserker was the first time we encountered one in the first game. Obviously, if they did not know what it was in the first game, then they can not face one in E-Day, which is set 14 years prior to the events of the first game, as that would make no sense whatsoever. Also the Lambent cannot feature at all, as they didn't show up until 3.

Will be interesting to see whether they might try to introduce some new enemies to the mix, ones that haven't featured before...

@BAMozzy There was rumour on Twitter about the Halo CE Remake, saying that the new strategy is to remake games individually and sell each full price instead of Trilogy Remasters. If you look elsewhere one-by-one remakes in franchises are the new norm (SH2, MGS3, RE games did it etc).
I think there will be eventually remakes of 2 and 3 as well. Probably done by another team other than Coalition.

@Fiendish-Beaver All I meant was that things we know from playing the Trilogy, the 'other' characters (inc Maria for example) could have more impact in E-Day for Players familiar with the later games.

The only way to Play Gears 2/3 on a PC is via Game Pass Cloud as they never had a PC release - unlike Gears 1. Therefore, I think they will release these, if not as a 'Remaster' pack inc Gears 1 in 'UE5', A definitive 'pack' on EVERY current MS hardware. 2 and 3 were 360 only and whilst they are playable via BC, I do think they'll bring these 'forward' so that its playable on PC too natively and 'preserved'

Whether they do it as just the Campaigns with all the online MP/Horde/Beast modes removed so people play the latest versions - or they do something more Halo CE, I don't know - but I do think they'll release at least remakes of 2 and 3. The Ultimate version of Gears 1 maybe wouldn't need Remastering or a lot of work compared to 2/3 if they do, but I do think they'll release 2/3 on PC at some point in the near future.

The structure and 'most' of the work is done - and it would be a good way to get to grips with UE5 instead of also trying to 'build' a game as well as learn an engine. Maybe a small team project for a group of the Coalition Devs or another Studio - but I do think they'll want to bring at least 2 and 3 more 'up to date' and released on PC...

There wasn't any gameplay for the game, so I doubt it will be ready for next year. Maybe 2026 would be more likely. Unless it's a easy to make game, coz who am I to say, I don't know how long it takes to make these big games.

@Fishmasterflex96 what do you mean they haven’t had a year of full releases? 2023 was:

XGS:
Goldeneye 007
Age of Empires II
Minecraft Legends
Age of Empires IV
Forza Motorsport

• Next Gen Update for Killer Instinct
• Forza Horizon Rally Expansion

Bethesda:
Hi-Fi Rush
Ghostwire Tokyo
Redfall
Quake II
Starfield

And if you like…

Activision post acquisition:
Call of Duty Modern Warfare III

I would say that is a full year of releases. But you’re right it wouldn’t be their full load in 2025; I was exaggerating. Great that Xbox is at a point where they can choose when to release all these heavy hitters.

I think it’s definitely coming in 2025. It’s been a full 5 years since Gears 5. They are probably further along in development than we assume.

@K1LLEGAL fair point on hi fi rush and Minecraft legends. But come on man you know console ports don’t have the energy Xbox needs. Also yes redfall is part of the output but it did more harm than good. I am coming from the AAA 1st party games which Xbox needs to be more consistent with.

Funny enough, I've just done 50 waves of Gears 5 Horde as a duo with a mate, @BAMozzy, and obviously we were talking all things E-Day. Maria came up in that conversation, but unless we see Dom meeting her, or needing to fend for his family in some manner, I think it's difficult to see her being part of E-Day simply because it is set 14 years prior to the first game, and of course, it wasn't until the second game that he subsequently found her in a Locust pod, by which point he had been looking for her for 10 years (which means she was not missing on E-Day).

I think we may see Dizzy once more because I believe that he, Marcus and Dom had previously fought together (possibly at Jacinto, though but memory fails me). Likewise, we may see Tai, Hoffman, and even Bernie return too.

Probabilities are that we will not see the likes of Cole and Baird, unless they feature in parts that do not include Marcus and Dom, as they only met for the first time in the first game. That also means that it is unlikely that Berserkers will feature, as I'm fairly sure that only Baird had encountered a Berserker before the first game, as it was him that explained that the Berserker was blind. Anya Stroud, may feature as whilst she was not particularly prominent in the first game, she did at least know Marcus having met him during the Pendulum Wars, and it was her that advised the quartet to get the Berserker outside so that they could hit it with the Hammer of Dawn.

Jace Stratton was a child during E-Day, and lost his entire family during the events that unfolded, and whilst he would then go on to join the COG, he obviously was not a Gear at that time. I suppose it is possible that his character may get a cameo for the events of E-Day, but in the lore of the game, he didn't meet Marcus until the events of Gears 3.

Other than characters that will, and will not, be present in E-Day, the things that has me thinking the most is the enemies that we may see returning to the game that were mysteriously absent from Gears 4 and 5.

There are quite a few missing including:

Kantus
Armoured Kantus
Bloodmount
Corpsers
Kryll
Wretch
Tickers
Reavers
Diggers
Seeders
Cerepeeds

I think Marcus and Dom has encountered most of these enemies previously, so they could all return (probably alongside some new ones), though I have a feeling that the Armoured Kantus first appeared in GoW2, so maybe not them. And as I have said previously, I don't believe that they had encountered a Berserker prior to the first game, so they will need to introduce another apex Locust to the mix.

Cannot help but wonder who will be the big boss for the E-Day, and whether there will be an overarching one for what I assume is going to be a prequel trilogy. I also cannot help but wonder whether Marcus and Dom will be the main characters for E-Day, or whether we will have two campaigns running simultaneously, with the other featuring Baird and Cole (or indeed, whether they would be the leads in an entirely separate game). Baird and Cole are fan favourite characters, but they cannot ever be in scenes with Marcus and Dom in the events surrounding E-Day, as they did not meet until 14 years later. Certainly going to be interesting to see how The Coalition deal with this, as it is impossible to have the original quartet together without rewriting Gears of War lore...

Definitely late 2025 I hope fable releases before it anyways if it like the 360era gears I'll be playing nothing but this for a good while could even get a clan going again if the multiplayer is good

Doubt it. 2026, if we’re very lucky. 2027+ most likely

This rumor spread from Tom Waren, the guy is a joke if you ask me! don't believe anything this "insider wanna be" says!

I can’t see this releasing any earlier than 2026 and we best get used to games that have been getting a 2025 date to be without a day and month attached until GTA VI has a proper release date or if they do you can bet they will change the date if GTA VI is releasing close to their date.

I don’t think the fact that the trailer didn’t have gameplay is really that relevant to its release date. Clearly they wanted to do a trailer that brought back feelings from the Mad World trailer for the original game. So I can see them excluding game play even if there was some that they could have shown.

There is plenty of time for them to show gameplay in future trailers. I think they had a very specific idea on the E-day trailer and showing gameplay would have taken away from the nostalgic feel of the original Mad World trailer. Thus I don’t feel like a lack of gameplay in this trailer is necessarily a good indicator of how far along they are development wise.

Fabel and Gears in 2025???? That would be amazing.

@CutchuSlow I would assume they have been working on this for 5 years. Just becasue this is all they showed does not mean they are not further along.

I think the first sign if this is 2025 will be the Dev Direct. Fable will be there as it's a 2025 release. Assuming they follow the same strategy Gears should be there if this is true.