During its first official weekend, Gears of War: E-Day suffered through online server issues which The Coalition has confirmed to be a targeted DDoS-style attack. It’s been an interesting week for Gears of War: E-Day, with many celebrating the return of the franchise and its return to the beginnings of the series. However, there have also been some major downsides happening as well.
For whatever reason, despite strong critical reviews for Gears of War: E-Day, there seems to be an undercurrent of negativity from certain fans. While E-Day takes players back to the start of the conflict, while also reuniting players with Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, there seems to be a segment of gamers that are less than thrilled with the game, with many even kicking off a review bombing campaign for Gears of War: E-Day. Criticisms seem to range from Mags Carter, a new character introduced in the game, to other things like The Coalition’s reported involvement with consulting firm Hit Detection. Either way, the backlash seems to have evolved as the online services were impacted during the game’s opening weekend.
Gears of War: E-Day Hit by DDoS Attacks
Following a weekend which featured an unusually high amount of server instability, The Coalition confirmed that the Gears of War: E-Day servers were hit by a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack, which essentially floods the online servers with requests, resulting in a variety of online issues from disconnects to problems logging in. While confirming the problems, The Coalition confirmed that the repairs are currently in progress and teams are both monitoring and mitigating the attempts. The main issues appear to be resolved, but it doesn’t appear that the game is fully back to normal quite yet as fans wait to jump back in to Gears of War: E-Day‘s Horde and Multiplayer modes.
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The timing of these attacks couldn’t be worse for the game as it entered its first weekend being fully available to all players after the Early Access portion for E-Day Premium Edition owners. Still, with the game riding a level of excitement after just launching, the online issues are no doubt frustrating for players to deal with. Responses to The Coalition’s message were met with support from players, while others continue to report various online issues from syncing problems to continued server instability.
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Despite positive critical reviews and word of mouth, the launch of Gears of War: E-Day has seemingly been a bit softer than most likely imagined. While official numbers haven’t been revealed by Microsoft of The Coalition, private games market data company Alinea Analytics has estimated that Gears of War: E-Day has sold approximately 230,000 copies from October 1–6, with Steam making up the bulk of those sales. However, Alinea also estimated that around 1.7 million people accessed E-Day through Xbox Game Pass, a significantly higher number and strongly suggesting that players would rather pay the subscription fee than the full retail asking price. Whether those players would have purchased the game at all if it wasn’t available through a subscription is another issue entirely.
Regardless, The Coalition and Microsoft are likely hoping that the game will have a longer tail on the market, which is no doubt going to be helped by the major plans in progress over the next few months. Gears of War: E-Day revealed a full DLC roadmap, highlighting the next 5 seasons and plans to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary with rewards and other freebies. The Coalition is also planning special limited-time events, many of which are centered around real world holidays like Halloween and the Thanksgiving-inspired “Thanksgibbing” activities. Season 2, which begins early in December, is also being teased as a “love letter to the franchise” and may strongly appeal to longtime franchise fans.
- Released
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October 6, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
