Gears of War: E-Day

Gears of War: E-Day is a forthcoming entry in Xbox Game Studios’ Gears of War series, developed by The Coalition. Revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024, the game returns to the planet Sera at the beginning of the Locust War, focusing on Emergence Day, the catastrophic moment when the Locust Horde first attacks humanity from beneath the surface.

The story takes place fourteen years before the events of the original Gears of War. It follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago when they are younger soldiers, long before they become the battle-hardened COG heroes familiar from the first trilogy. The reveal trailer places the pair in the city of Kalona during the initial invasion. Marcus and Dom encounter the Locust threat while civilians flee and buildings collapse around them, establishing a setting in which the COG has not yet adapted its tactics, weapons, or expectations to an enemy emerging from underground.

The announcement trailer uses Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World,” a deliberate connection to the 2006 Gears of War marketing campaign, which famously used the same song. Its presentation emphasizes fear, destruction, and the shock of first contact rather than the established wartime routines seen in later-set games. The Coalition has described E-Day as a return to the emotional weight, atmosphere, and horror associated with the original Gears of War.

Marcus Fenix is a central figure throughout the franchise. In the original game, he is released from prison by Dominic Santiago to rejoin the Coalition of Ordered Governments during an ongoing war against the Locust. E-Day instead explores the period before Marcus becomes the imprisoned veteran introduced in that game. Dom, Marcus’s closest friend and squadmate, also appears before the personal losses and combat experience that define his later characterization.

The project is being built in Unreal Engine 5. The Coalition has stated that the game uses the technology to support its vision of Sera during Emergence Day, while retaining core series elements such as large-scale Locust assaults, close-range combat, and the relationship between Marcus and Dom. Unlike Gears 5, which followed Kait Diaz and expanded the franchise’s modern timeline, E-Day moves backward to an earlier historical point.

No release date, platform-specific launch details, or full supporting cast had been confirmed in the game’s reveal announcement. Its confirmed premise is therefore tightly centered on the first day of the Locust invasion and the formative partnership of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.