Gears of War: E-Day: everything we know so far

Microsoft and The Coalition have opted to take the Gears of War franchise back to its roots with Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel that will follow beloved characters Marcus Fenix and Dominic (Dom) Santiago during their first fight against the invading Locust horde. This new mainline entry will feature everything fans have come to love about the series alongside fresh experiences only achievable on the newest hardware.

Of course, some players may be disappointed to hear that the next game isn’t Gears 6 — but there’s good news on that front. Fans eager to know what happened after the conclusion of Gears 5 can rest easy knowing that the team isn’t abandoning that storyline.

“We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that were told,” Brand Director Nicole Fawcette told Xbox Wire. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, and this one just felt too good to miss.”

There’s clearly still a lot of story left to be told in the Gears of War universe. So while we wait to see what’s next in the tale in a future Gears 6, here’s everything we know about Gears of War: E-Day.

Release date

Xbox Game Studios

The first trailer for Gears of War: E-Day didn’t share a release date, but it’s safe to assume we’ll hear more about this sometime next year. Holiday 2025 seems like a reasonable guess for a release window, but Microsoft has a tendency to announce some games with cinematic trailers extremely far ahead of their eventual launch, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it pushed into 2026.

Platforms

Xbox Games Studio

Gears of War: E-Day will launch on Xbox Series S|X and PC. There have been rumors of the series coming over to PlayStation 5, too — especially as more and more Xbox Game Studios games are making their way there — but there has been no official confirmation from either company, so we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath for that.

Trailers

Microsoft announced Gears of War: E-Day with its very first trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024. Though it doesn’t show any gameplay, it gives us a glimpse of the prequel’s stars — younger versions of series mainstays Marcus and Dom — as they fight off a Locust. It ends with them staring out over a fallen city filled with emergence holes, driving home the game’s focus on the shocking initial assault of the Locust horde.

We are so back. 🤜🤛

On today's 18th anniversary of Gears of War, we're proud to share that John DiMaggio and @RealCarlosFerro are reprising their roles as the iconic voices of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in Gears of War: E-Day. pic.twitter.com/x9uaH9R0sR

— Gears of War (@GearsofWar) November 7, 2024

Despite being set 14 years before the events of the first game, both John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro will be reprising their roles as Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, respectively, for the prequel.

Multiplayer

Xbox Games Studio

While the Gears of War franchise is well-known for its surprisingly emotional (and undoubtedly bloody) shooter campaigns, you can also always count on an equally intense multiplayer component. While neither Microsoft nor The Coalition have detailed much of anything about this so far, both co-op and competitive multiplayer has been confirmed for this exciting prequel entry.

Preorder

Like all first-party Microsoft games, Gears of War: E-Day will be available on day one for Game Pass subscribers on both Xbox and PC. As such, subscribers will be able to download and play it on launch day with no additional purchase necessary. If you’re not interested in Game Pass, however, and just want to buy the game outright, you can also wish-list it right now on Steam.