Gears of War: E-Day Cost Half a Billion Dollars to Make, According to Reports

Multiple new reports claim that the budget for Gears of War: E-Day was $500 million. Both Kotaku and Chris Dring of The Game Business reported today, with Kotaku’s report saying the number does not include marketing costs.

Jez Corden of Windows Central added that the $500 million figure is not wrong, but his own sources aren’t able to say definitively if that number covers the game’s budget alone, or the game’s budget plus additional costs related to running the development studio, The Coalition.

Whatever the case, the consensus seems to be that E-Day was an expensive game to produce, and the game’s early sales results do not seem very impressive. The game reportedly sold 230,000 copies across Xbox and PC, but that doesn’t tell the whole story since the game is included with Xbox Game Pass. Further data shows that the game reached nearly 2 million people out of the gate, and that number is sure to grow over time.

Game Pass is a juggernaut for Microsoft and Xbox, with its recurring revenue from subscriptions generating almost $5 billion annually based on the latest data. A $500 million development budget for E-Day would represent 10% of that annual revenue from Game Pass.

Industry expert Mike Futter reacted to Kotaku’s report about E-Day’s $500 million budget, saying, “Exclusivity on console games simply does not make sense right now,” even if the development budget was half of that.

E-Day was expected to release on PS5, and Microsoft’s own presentational materials showed that, but the game was not released on Sony’s console. According to reports, Microsoft canceled a PS5 edition at the last minute, with others saying E-Day was being sent out to die on purpose.

GameSpot has contacted Xbox seeking comment about E-Day’s reported budget.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has said one of her ambitions is to bring back exclusives, following the previous leadership under Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond embracing multiplatform releases.

E-Day is a prequel to the Gears series, telling the story of Emergence Day. The game got generally solid review scores, including a 7/10 here at GameSpot.

No new Gears of War games have been confirmed, but developers at The Coalition have said the foundation is in place now to make an E-Day sequel faster. Beyond any possible new games, Netflix is producing a Gears of War movie and TV series.