Gears of War: E-Day lands this Tuesday (10/06) with the franchise’s best reception in years. But behind the good score, developer The Coalition is living a tense moment: according to Eurogamer, developers fear being laid off right after launch, before they even get the bonus tied to the game’s critic score.
Image: Xbox Game Studios / The Coalition.
The series’ best score since the Epic era
On Metacritic, E-Day sits at 88, from 50 reviews. That’s the highest score for a Gears of War game since Epic Games ran the franchise, beating Gears of War: Judgment (79) and the two previous games made by The Coalition itself, Gears 4 and Gears 5 (84 each).
Launch details
- Release October 6, 2026
- Platforms Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam), and Xbox Cloud. No PS5 version
- Metacritic score 88, from 50 reviews, the series’ highest since the Epic era
- Steam pre-orders Around 120,000, called “soft” for a AAA production by analyst Rhys Elliott
A bonus at risk
The problem is what comes after launch. According to Eurogamer sources inside The Coalition, the studio already lost story director Juan Vaca, laid off shortly before release, along with a handful of other developers let go quietly. Those who remain risk losing a bonus tied to the game’s critic score, since the contract requires the employee to still be at the company when the payment is made.
“It’s hard to believe anything they say anymore.”
— The Coalition developer, to Eurogamer (anonymous)
The mood soured because the team had expected cuts only after launch, and these early exits caught everyone off guard. The fear now is being part of a new wave of layoffs, or even seeing the studio moved under Activision, the same way Rare and the Age of Empires studio were, as part of the restructuring Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced in July, with 3,200 cuts planned across the fiscal year.
The PS5 cancellation controversy
Another sore point is the game’s absence on PS5. In June, Microsoft confirmed that a version for Sony’s console, reportedly already in development, had been cancelled. Analyst Rhys Elliott, of Alinea Analytics, argued the decision was a mistake, precisely because of what he called soft Steam pre-orders:
“In my view, they shouldn’t have cancelled that PlayStation port. It would have added some much-needed extra revenue, the port was reportedly already in the works, and Gears isn’t necessarily a console-seller anymore.”
— Rhys Elliott, analyst at Alinea Analytics
The take drew a strong reaction: Elliott said he received death threats after publishing the analysis.
Sources: Kotaku, WCCFTech, Metacritic, Push Square
