Kotaku reports that Gears of War: E-Day cost more than $500 million to make, before marketing. A separate source has told The Verge the game has sold more than 400,000 copies across Xbox and PC. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed either figure.
The latest numbers come from Tom Warren’s Notepad column for The Verge, published on 29 October. Warren rounds up Kotaku’s budget report and adds a new sales figure from his own source.
The reported budget
On 22 October, Kotaku reported that E-Day cost “over $500 million” to make. The figure came from one source familiar with Xbox’s business, and Kotaku says it doesn’t include marketing. Microsoft didn’t respond to Kotaku’s request for comment.
It isn’t the first budget figure to surface. Kotaku notes that Insider Gaming put the cost at over $400 million in June. At the time, Windows Central’s Jez Corden pushed back, saying it’s hard to separate The Coalition’s spending on E-Day from the work the studio does to support other Xbox Game Studios teams.
What’s been reported about sales
A source speaking to The Verge says E-Day has sold more than 400,000 copies across Xbox and PC. E-Day launched on 6 October, with Early Access from 1 October, and it joined Game Pass on day one, as Xbox Wire confirmed at launch.
Kotaku also cites an Alinea Analytics estimate of 230,000 copies sold in the first week. That’s an outside estimate, not an official number.
Microsoft hasn’t published sales or player numbers for E-Day. Warren says the big unknown is how the game has done on Game Pass, and whether that offsets sales.
Strong reviews
The reported cost comes alongside strong reviews. E-Day has a Metascore of 87 on Metacritic, based on 81 critic reviews of the Xbox Series X|S version. As The Verge and Kotaku both point out, that’s the highest score for a Gears of War game since the Xbox 360 era. We looked at how that score compares with this year’s Golden Joystick nominees earlier this week.
What’s official and what isn’t
The release dates, the Game Pass launch and the Metascore are on the record. The $500 million budget and the 400,000 sales figure both come from unnamed sources, reported by Kotaku and The Verge. Microsoft hasn’t commented on either.
For more on the game, head to our Gears of War: E-Day hub. We’ll update this story if Xbox shares official figures.
