While there have been many questions regarding the success of The Coalition’s Gears of War: E-Day, especially following reports that it cost $500 million to make, a new report by Windows Central’s Jez Corden has noted that the budget doesn’t exactly tell the full story. While Corden has corroborated the reported $500 million allocated to The Coalition between the release of Gears 5 and Gears of War: E-Day, it seemingly wasn’t all spent on the prequel.
One of the biggest factors is that The Coalition has assisted in the development of Unreal Engine for other Xbox studios. Former senior Xbox employee Derek Reese made a note of this on social media, where he said that the company has been “on the hook for the Microsoft branch of Unreal and one of the flagship titles.”
The Coalition also worked with Epic Games on the The Matrix Awakens demonstration to showcase Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities in the middle of a global pandemic. Shortly after Rod Fergusson left the company, it was in what Corden describes as a “dormant state,” as Microsoft figured out its future.
The studio then worked on a prototype for more than a year and a half, but it was ultimately canceled. In the meantime, it continued to work as a support studio on projects like Avowed, Grounded, Grounded 2, and Hellblade 2, and even upcoming games like State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, and the open-world StarCraft shooter.
With these details in mind, it’s easy to see where much of the $500 million went, since The Coalition worked on a wide variety of projects while also serving as the lead engineering team for Microsoft’s branch of Unreal Engine. However, with Xbox seemingly looking at more cuts in the coming months, it could be affected.
Reports about Gears of War: E-Day costing $500 million first started popping up a couple of weeks ago. With over 400,000 copies reportedly sold, Xbox’s investment wouldn’t look too hot. However, at the time, Corden had noted in a now-deleted tweet that, “They ain’t wrong on the figure, but seems to be some disagreement among my sources how that figure was allocated between E-Day and general TC operations/ATG contributions.”
It is also worth noting that Gears of War: E-Day is one of the first major titles that Xbox is using as part of its strategy to return to exclusives. However, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella doesn’t believe that this strategy has led to tangible benefits, especially when compared to Marvel’s Wolverine.
For more details on Gears of War: E-Day, take a look at our review. You can also check out our thoughts on its multiplayer.
