Thursday, October 22nd 2026
Gears of War: E-Day Production Budget Reported at Over $500 Million
Recently, analysts estimated that Gears of War: E-Day had earned around $42 million in revenue in its first week on the market, but a recent report from Kotaku claims that that revenue is but a drop in the bucket compared to the game's overall budget.
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of Gears of War: E-Day is now live]
The report cites an insider "familiar with Xbox's business" and claims that the production budget alone—that is to say, excluding the marketing costs—for Gears of War: E-Day was over $500 million. This puts the game's overall estimated revenue at well under 10% of what Microsoft spent to get it out of the door, and, in a report from early October, employees at The Coalition, the Xbox Game Studios subsidiary responsible for the game's development, said that they were concerned about being laid off shortly after the game launched, especially given the ongoing Xbox Reset and the current climate in the gaming industry overall.
The ongoing tumult at Xbox makes it difficult to judge what the fallout will be if E-Day doesn't meet its targets—a situation that is made all the more complicated by Xbox's recent push for Game Pass subscriptions and its late pivot towards Gears of War: E-Day as an Xbox-exclusive game. In the recent analytics data, it was revealed that Game Pass subscribers were responsible for around 74.6% of Gears of War: E-Day's revenue, with over 1.7 million players accessing it via the Game Pass subscription, and it may turn out that some of the new subscribers that came to Game Pass for E-Day could stay in the long-term.
Sources:
Kotaku, Eurogamer
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of Gears of War: E-Day is now live]
The report cites an insider "familiar with Xbox's business" and claims that the production budget alone—that is to say, excluding the marketing costs—for Gears of War: E-Day was over $500 million. This puts the game's overall estimated revenue at well under 10% of what Microsoft spent to get it out of the door, and, in a report from early October, employees at The Coalition, the Xbox Game Studios subsidiary responsible for the game's development, said that they were concerned about being laid off shortly after the game launched, especially given the ongoing Xbox Reset and the current climate in the gaming industry overall.
26 Comments on Gears of War: E-Day Production Budget Reported at Over $500 Million
So what is the grand total? 700 million?
Hilarious if true.
That's downright criminal to churn through all that $ for a mediocre at best, game
It's pretty insane, did they give everyone a Rolex, and a car, and laugh all the way to the bank?
Also those budgets need to be investigated. It stinks of money laundering 🤑💰
AAA gaming is full of over bloated teams wasting time to make games. Warhorse studios showed us that you can make a AAA game without ridiculous teams, budgets, and ridiculous timeframes. Maybe we now should get back to hiring people who actually have a passion for making games again...
For the record, the gameplay of E-Day is pretty good. If the story wasn't trash the game would probably have done significantly better.
What matters the most is creativity and a good idea and work environment. I'd argue that a small studio can achieve much more even in a smaller scale, than all these big studios.
There are ways to make great games without the "AAA" tag, but these studios just can't somehow figure it out and keep throwing out money and waiting for the best.
And if you look at the reports over how GoW:ED did on Gamepass, the majority of players only played for about an hour then never returned, given that some of the easier Trophies only required playing past the first few missions yet out of so many reported players, only a small percentage got the early game Trophies. So it's highly unlikely that any of them will convert into proper paying players.
It's about time that the AAA industry is broken back up into smaller, more agile groups who can turn out an AAA game with a fraction of the budget. Less cooks in the kitchen, and more time spent cooking and getting the dish out on time and cooked just right.
Absolutely insane if it really cost this much to make. Terrible mismanagement on a massive scale.
Usually ends just ... much more expensive.
🙄
and you mean to tell me some wise person at MS, decided to keep it exclusive, like its gonna boost Xbox install base and perform massively well on PC.
If i was them i would have tried to port this to as many systems as possible.
The Gears IP isn't as popular or important as past and they should have known this long ago...
This is what happens when you got loose/relax management because the mothership is sitting on alot of reserves and they think throwing alot of bodies at a project is the way to go..
$500m, dam...Which Hollywood movie cost that to make, no wonder so much of them will use Ai just to cut staff and budget.
I think they were hoping for Forza Horizon 6 type sales
I like side quests that expand the story and world setting. The side quests that end up as an entire sideplot chain over the course of the game, like building up to take down some rival or gang, or leading to finding a secret area that rewards endgame level loot, or even just a dramatic story helping some guy win the girl by freeing her from a curse or something. Or shorter ones that challenges the player, and if they complete it, gets some strong game loot (at least, stronger than regular gear at that point in the story).
The top brass and those influencing his decisions seems to think if your AAA game ain't this MASSIVE thing, have realistic graphics and takes at least 20+hrs to complete it won't succeed...
The industry thrive on mid-size - small size games before, maybe is time to half the size of game and reduce the cost while were are at it.
I know many like to hate on Nintendo with their Graphics style, but it seems they and a few others are the only ones that operate on a tight budget