Gears of War: E-Day Early Access opened on October 1, five days ahead of the game's October 6 launch, for Premium Edition owners and Game Pass subscribers who add the Premium Upgrade.
Per Xbox, the window began at 8:00 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) worldwide, and the full release lands at the same hour on October 6. The Coalition, the studio behind the game, marked the start with a launch trailer set to Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
Gears of War: E-Day runs on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, with PC copies sold through both the Microsoft Store and Steam. Xbox lists cloud play through Game Pass Ultimate and GeForce NOW. It also says the game joins the Disc to Digital program at early access, without saying how that works for disc buyers.
The Gears of War: E-Day campaign tells the origin story of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, set fourteen years before the first Gears of War. It can be played alone, in two-player split-screen on console, or with up to four players online. Xbox pairs it with a reworked Horde Siege wave-survival mode and 4v4 Versus PvP, and says the Unreal Engine 5 build targets 4K at up to 60 frames per second on a compatible display.
Pricing for Gears of War: E-Day sits on the game's Xbox page: $69.99 for the Standard Edition, $99.99 for the Premium Edition and a $30 Premium Edition upgrade, which the page says requires either the base game or a Game Pass Ultimate membership. Premium and the upgrade both carry up to five days of early access, a Bravo Squad weapon pack, five seasonal customization packs and 1,000 Iron, the in-game currency. That $30 matches the gap between the two editions, so buying Standard first and upgrading later costs no more than taking Premium outright.
A long list of tie-ins surrounds the release. Xbox points to limited edition Gears of War Xbox Wireless Controllers on sale now, a controller dock to pre-order for October 9, an 8BitDo keyboard and mouse targeted for October 30, launch apparel, an Insight Editions art book and a soundtrack by Adam Lastiwka due October 6. Liquid Death Energy receipts unlock an in-game chainsaw pose, and Prince Street Pizza is selling a Gears-themed pie in the United States and Canada for a limited time.
For a Game Pass Ultimate member, the trade comes down to the listed $30 upgrade against a wait until October 6, when Gears of War: E-Day joins the subscription.
