Gears of War: E-Day It’s coming to Xbox and PC on October 6th, with early access starting on October 1st for those who buy the version that includes it, but its debut will be directly on Xbox Game Pass Revenues from traditional sales may be significantly reduced. This is the assessment of Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott, who conducted a new analysis specifically on the game’s sales prospects.
Sold a few copies
According to data collected by Elliott, “E-Day” has pre-sold more than 120,000 copies on Steam, generating more than $7 million in revenue. The result will be more than double what Halo: Campaign Evolved achieved in the same timeframe. Despite this start, analysts believe the game is unlikely to sell 1 million copies on Steam during its commercial lifetime.
However, the focus of the discussion was Xbox. According to Elliott, “most Xbox version revenue will be eaten up by Game PassHowever, analysts admit that the availability of a game on the service can encourage new subscriptions, which is why the number of copies sold does not necessarily represent the full economic value generated by the game, but given CEO Asha Sharma’s rethinking of many strategies, this issue must be evaluated in the medium to long term.
Your pizza doesn’t stand a chance with the official Gears of War: E-Day pizza cutter
The company has acknowledged in the past that including games in the Game Pass catalog could cannibalize full-price sales, and more recently, it has begun reviewing its policies around day-one game releases. Elliott specifically mentioned the decision not to include new Call of Duty games on the service at launch, while Sharma talked about the possibility of different release windows for certain games.
Analysts also return to options Don’t bring E-Day to PS5 at launch. In his view, a version for Sony’s consoles would “add much-needed additional revenue.” Elliott still believes a future release on PS5 is possible, despite Microsoft denying it canceled a version for the console. However, the company has not denied that it is considering a PS5 version of the game.
Elliott ultimately tied the circumstances of E-Day and Clockwork Revolution to a broader shift in Xbox hardware strategy. According to his analysis, “the Xbox console as we know it is over, and has been for some time,” and exclusive games will no longer be enough to significantly drive sales of Xbox Series X and S, which have entered the final stages of their business cycles.
“Gears of War’s console exclusivity does not drive a large number of series games Xbox game now available on Steam.
Therefore, in his opinion, the Electronic Day and the clockwork revolution would be “sacrificial lambs to win consensus, not for economic reasons”. Finally, analysts predict that E-Day will come to PS5 sooner or later, if not at launch.
