Gears of War: E-Day is live starting today, October 1, for people who purchased early access to the newest Xbox console exclusive. But the cover-based shooter might not have every feature fans might expect to see, at least not at launch. The developers say that’s partly due to the fact that E-Day was an effort to recreate the Gears formula from the ground up using new tech.
“We started E-Day with an empty hard drive building our entire gameplay sandbox from scratch to ensure a more unified gameplay experience across Campaign, PVE and PVP,” read a blog post released last night. “This new sandbox also allowed for innovation in cover, combat and enemies. The trade-off being that including every legacy feature from Gears of War was not possible for launch.”
It continued, “Those features, like Meat Shields, Chainsaw Duels, select weapons from the franchise’s past, and online work like Private Lobbies and leaderboards – are not gone from the franchise. Our team is working hard to deliver the strongest and most stable launch experience we can with an eye to how, and what, to deliver and improve on fan-favorite features either post-launch or in our next title.”
Some players were upset and confused by the delay, especially for private lobbies and ranked gameplay, a core part of the series’ multiplayer experience for long-time fans. E-Day is the first new entry since Gears 5, which released seven years ago.
While the new game features stunning visuals and overhauls to traversal and other core parts of the moment-to-moment experience, it’s not exactly clear why development may have ended up rushed enough for certain core features to get dropped or delayed. Developer The Coalition was rumored to be working on two smaller projects before the new Gears entry, both of which were reportedly canceled.
“I want to show some love to The Coalition cause I feel like they have taken the feedback well and I’m curious to see how E-Day evolves,” wrote former pro Gears player Guy “Blaze” Spencer. The studio outlined a number of balance tweaks to mechanics and weapons following feedback from the beta, and also previewed the schedule for what content is rolling out when as E-Day‘s seasonal live-service journey begins.
Versus Ranked will become available starting October 13. Season 1 will include limited themed events like Halloween, 20 Years of Gears, and Thanksgibbing, before wrapping up December 1. Season 2, called Legacy and Beyond, will kick off after that with content themed around a 20-year celebration of the franchise’s “greatest hits.” The studio also previewed the names of the remaining seasons on E-Day‘s calendar: Season 3: Infiltration, Season 4: Pendulum, and Season 5: Devotion.
