Gears of War: E-Day showed off incredibly well during last Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase. The show opened with a meaty first look at gameplay, before we were later treated to a much deeper dive into the upcoming prequel in a dedicated Direct.
One thing, however, never stopped hanging over the game like a dark cloud: what’s the deal with exclusivity? Xbox clarified very early on in the show that E-Day is an Xbox console exclusive, meaning it won’t be released on Sony’s PlayStation.
E-Day was never officially announced for PS5, but a PEGI rating for that version went live prior to the showcase. The decision to lock the game to Xbox was seemingly made at the last minute, as Xbox had to take down a video that featured the PS5 logo on the cover art.
Eurogamer’s editor-in-chief Chris Tapsell attended a Summer Game Fest presentation and group Q&A following the big reveal, where he asked the developers directly about the reported change in plans.
“Well, we never talked about it going to PS5,” said Matt Searcy, studio creative director at The Coalition. “It was never changed,” added studio brand director, Nicole Fawcette.
“I would say that, Gears as an exclusive, makes a tonne of sense,” Searcy explained. “It’s kind of an honour, and exciting, to be one of the Xbox flagship titles.”
Indeed, that’s a sentiment many Xbox players share, including series co-creator Cliff Bleszinski, who told Eurogamer in a statement that keeping Gears exclusive will help Xbox win back its core audience.
We asked the team how they felt about releasing to a smaller audience, now that the game is going to be skipping the potentially millions of players who own a PS5.
“Of course, it’s awesome to have [more] people play our games, but for Xbox and PC, you’ve got what is out there,” said Searcy.
The Coalition also isn’t concerned about a potentially smaller population could affect multiplayer matchmaking.
“We’re not too concerned about the size of the audience,” Aryan Hanbeck, art director at The Coalition added. “We’ve shipped to audiences smaller before, and there are great shooters on Xbox already.”
Gears of War: E-Day supports cross-play between PC, and Xbox, but the developers said they’ll reveal more details – such as whether or not you can turn it off for Verus multiplayer – when they’re ready to talk about co-op and multiplayer.
We actually got a glimpse of Versus, and Horde (now Horde Siege) during the E-Day Direct, but the focus has clearly been on the campaign at this time. Gears of War: E-Day is set for release 6th October on PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
A previous version of this article’s headline said the Gears of War developers insisted Gears of War: E-Day was never in development for PS5. In fact, they insited it was never “talked about” that it was releasing to PS5 publicly. We’ve updated the headline to reflect this quote more accurately.
