Gears of War: E-Day has sold more than 400,000 copies across Xbox and Steam, according to a source cited by Tom Warren of The Verge in his Notepad newsletter today. It is the first sales figure of any kind attached to the game, which reportedly cost more than $500 million to make before marketing. Microsoft has not published sales numbers, and Warren’s figure comes from a single source.
Warren is careful about what the number means. “The big question is whether Microsoft was happy with its Game Pass numbers for E-Day,” he writes, “and whether that revenue offsets any additional sales on Xbox and potential PS5 sales if a port had been released.”
400,000 copies against a reported $500 million, three weeks after launch
E-Day launched on October 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, day one on Game Pass, and Microsoft confirmed in June that it would stay an Xbox console exclusive after a retailer listing had shown a PS5 version. The “over $500 million” development figure came out two weeks later and was backed by two reporters on the Xbox beat, with the caveat that some of the spend covered engine and tools work at The Coalition that other projects will use. Warren notes the game has the highest Metacritic score of any Gears since the Xbox 360 era, which makes the sales question sharper, not softer: the reviews are not the problem.
On Steam, where E-Day costs $69.99, the game had about 3,800 people playing at 3 PM Eastern today and roughly 10,600 user reviews. That is consistent with a few hundred thousand paid copies with most players arriving through Game Pass, which is what third-party estimates were already suggesting two weeks ago.
Why 400,000 is a Game Pass number, not a failure number, until Microsoft says otherwise
Microsoft has spent 2026 treating E-Day as a test of whether keeping a big game off PS5 can rebuild the Xbox console base. That is why Warren frames the question around Game Pass: a subscriber who plays E-Day for two weeks shows up nowhere in a copies-sold figure, and neither does a console bought to play it. Jez Corden said two weeks ago that the game had “absolutely not” recouped its budget and guessed Microsoft might see it as a loss leader. The 400,000 figure does not change that read. What it adds is a floor: at full price, that is roughly $28 million in paid sales before platform cuts, against a budget more than 17 times larger.
The reaction on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours split between people reading the number as dire and people pointing out that it is a report of a report. “If these numbers are correct that’s pretty dire,” one reply says. “If Clockwork doesn’t pull better numbers Xbox will revert right back to their multi-platform strategy.”
[The Verge] Gears of War: E-War cost $500 million to make and it sold “more than 400,000 copies” across Xbox and Steam, source says
byu/Joseki100 inGamingLeaksAndRumours
Microsoft has given itself another month to decide Arkane Lyon’s future
The same newsletter has an update on the other Xbox studio story of the year. Warren reported in June that Microsoft was weighing cancelling Blade and closing Arkane Lyon, and since then the company has been talking to multiple publishers about selling the studio while consulting its union. A November 13 decision deadline has now been extended by a month, which Microsoft has confirmed. Warren reads the extension as a sign a deal is close and says he is “cautiously optimistic that Blade will be saved.”
