It Hasn’t Made Any Difference’: Gears of War PS5 Cancellation Fails to Boost Xbox

Many first-party titles, such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, launched on PS5 under former Microsoft boss Phil Spencer’s leadership.

New management, however, chose to restrict games like Gears of War: E-Day and next year’s Clockwork Revolution to PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

The Coalition’s acclaimed third-person shooter was planned for PS5, as Microsoft accidentally uploaded a trailer confirming as much. The title was also rated for release on Sony’s system, and an “almost finished” version exists on a hard drive somewhere.

But is the gambit paying off for Microsoft?

In the aftermath of an unremarkable financial report for Xbox — where it saw its sales slide yet again — The Game Business reports that Gears of War’s exclusivity “hasn’t made a difference” to the brand.

In the UK, hardware sales slipped by 22% during its release month of October, and Circana’s Mat Piscatella says things are only getting worse in the US.

Piscatella explained:

“Saying Gears is going to be exclusive hasn’t made any difference in terms of the hardware trend. In fact, it keeps getting worse.

Everything they’re doing seems to be getting Twitter likes from the most passionate part of their fan base, but other than that, in terms of actual results, I’m not seeing anything right now. And I’m looking really hard.

And Gears is a gorgeous game. That is a Gears-ass Gears of War game. But by making it exclusive, you chop the legs out from under its potential as an individual title in order to boost your platform, and at least in the short term, it hasn’t made a difference.”

“Saying Gears is going to be exclusive hasn’t made any difference in terms of the hardware trend. In fact, it keeps getting worse.

Everything they’re doing seems to be getting Twitter likes from the most passionate part of their fan base, but other than that, in terms of actual results, I’m not seeing anything right now. And I’m looking really hard.

And Gears is a gorgeous game. That is a Gears-ass Gears of War game. But by making it exclusive, you chop the legs out from under its potential as an individual title in order to boost your platform, and at least in the short term, it hasn’t made a difference.

In a new report from The Verge, it’s claimed that E-Day has sold about 400k units worldwide, which is a little higher than the most recent estimates from Alinea Analytics.

Like all first-party games, it is included in Xbox Game Pass – although there’s some speculation Microsoft may revise this business model in the new year, as it isn’t working out financially for the firm.

Indeed, sources claim the game may have cost as much as $500 million to make, meaning it’s unlikely to ever earn its money back.

Whether that means the title will get ported to the PS5 eventually in order to claw back some revenue remains to be seen, but so far, it looks like this latest gambit isn’t working out for Microsoft.

Let’s see how Clockwork Revolution performs next.