Initially set to launch across PC, Xbox and PlayStation, The Coalition’s Gears of War: E-Day was seemingly pivoted to becoming an Xbox console exclusive at the last-minute in an effort to boost Microsoft’s console output. Whether this will prove to have been a smart move in the long-term remains to be seen, but according to insiders, Gears of War E-Day has been off to a slow start – with the title reportedly having sold less than half-a-million units so far (despite costing $500 million to develop).
As expected from Microsoft, the console maker has not shared any official data regarding the early performance of their most-recent exclusive: Gears of War: E-Day. That said, multiple insiders have since come out to offer some preliminary figures, with The Verge’s Tom Warren claiming: “One source tells me that more than 400,000 copies of the game have been sold across Xbox and Steam.”
While 400K units sold is certainly nothing to sniff as (especially as the game released less than a month ago and was available day-one on Xbox Game Pass), E-Day will likely need to sell well over 5 million copies in order to break-even.
This is due to the fact that according to multiple sources – including known insider Jason Schreier – the total budget for Gears of War: E-Day landed at around $500 million. Considering the fact that the best-selling entry of all time (Gears 2) is said to have sold fewer than 7 million units, it begs the question as to whether E-Day will be able to make its money back at all.
Of course, being a console exclusive, E-Day is in some ways intended as an Xbox-seller more so than a title designed to push as many units as possible. Still, with its half a Billion budget and fewer than 500,000 copies sold so far, it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft deems their strategy of making the game exclusive as having been a success or not.
KitGuru says: Did you pick up Gears of War E-Day? If not, did you check it out on Game Pass? Was making the game exclusive a good idea? Let us know down below.
