When Gears of War: E-Day was revealed in 2024, I couldn’t hide my disappointment. I love Marcus and Dom, but Kait’s story and seeing a resolution to the immense cliffhanger at the end of Gears 5 are important to me too. But the Gears of War: E-Day Direct after the 2026 Xbox Games Showcase had one moment that utterly sold me on our detour to Marcus’ past: Dom’s smile and “Love you, baby” as he hung up the phone in the bar. Fellow Gears fans, we know who he’s talking too and how much it means to see Dom in a moment of genuine happiness — one we know won’t last long and that’s already overshadowed by the loss of Dom’s older brother. Gears of War: E-Day is an exciting chance for us to see Marcus and Dom at relative peace in a Sera we’ve never seen in the games, even if only for a few moments.
That all being said, will we get a Gears 6? Is Gears of War: E-Day a restart for the series, or another opportunity to build on what exists? And what’s going on with the move away from the iconic roadie run? In a group interview with The Coalition creative director Matt Searcy, brand director Nicole Fawcette, and art director Aryan Hanbeck, myself and fellow Gears enthusiast Ryan McCaffrey found they wouldn’t say anything definitive on the fate of Gears 6, but we did get news on plenty more.
But first, let’s get the elephant out of the room: the three directors firmly stated that there was no use of generative AI in creating any part of Gears of War: E-Day. “We have a kickass concept art team, and our art book is going to rock,” Searcy said.
Preserving Gears of War Lore
As of now, The Coalition has done a fantastic job preserving and building on the Gears of War lore through its many games, novels, and comic books. Back when I spoke with The Coalition in April 2020 on the reveal of the Gears of War timeline and perspective on Gears lore, the studio said that it purposefully doesn’t want a detailed map of Sera or other concrete details so there’s always room for the creative teams’ ideas. But The Coalition has changed quite a bit in its six years since that interview.
When I think of stories moving back in their timeline, we’ve seen some use it as an opportunity to restart or make fundamental changes — think the controversial addition of Midichlorians in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. The Force went from being an ethereal tether in all things to a calculatable metric of power. What’s The Coalition’s perspective on Gears of War: E-Day?
“We worked really hard to keep the canon intact,” Searcy said. “Honestly, lifting the Tai moment out and putting it in this place was probably the biggest single thing we’ve done and we kept it intact, like we kept the moment intact. We just relocated where and when exactly it happened in the canon.”
The aforementioned Tai moment is shown at the end of the Xbox Showcase trailer. We see a notable scene from the book Gears of War: Jacinto’s Remnant, where Marcus is saved by Tai Kaliso who slices the Drone attacking Marcus in half with a chainsaw. “Even the dialogue in the cinematic is basically lifted from the book,” Searcy said.
Fawcette said they call this “lift and shift” at the studio. Basically, a way to pull from a part of Gears lore that exists and move it to the new E-Day setting, Kalona.
“If you think about what’s been talked about in Gears lore, it’s a tiny amount of what would exist on Sera,” Searcy explained. “It’s like a few cities, it’s a few major battles, it’s some specifics. Every time we tackle a new story, and especially with this one, we’re trying to expand not just what we’re telling the story about — the new characters here, the history of Kalona, how it was involved in the Pendulum War effort, how it might positioned itself to be in the world that was lost, why people care about Kalona. Why is the military even bothering to try to save this [city]? All of those things make all of the other stories better because it enriches how the world connects and sets us up to tell new stories. Because while we answer [some questions], we’ll open up new questions as well. Plus we’re bringing back some fan favorites, but we’re adding a whole bunch of new characters too.”
We can expect new enemies, too. “Because the world goes so downhill in the original trilogy, we’re able to do some new stuff that we were okay that, if you didn’t see them in the original trilogy, it was okay. The world lost so much,” Fawcette said.
Keeping the canon intact, of course, means we won’t be seeing Cole and Baird. They don’t meet Marcus and Dom until the first Gears of War, and Searcy said they want to preserve that. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t see their mark on the world. Or at least we’ll get to see hints of Cole.
“We really worked diligently to make sure that those details for fans were there. When you go to the bar, you see a poster of Cole in his Hanover Cougars [days],” Fawcette said. “Here’s there. So while you might not meet Cole Train in this game, we wanted to make sure there would be posters of Cole Train in the world. He’s the most famous thrashball athlete.”
Hanbeck added that because Gears of War: E-Day is set only in Kalona, “there’s a ton of injected stuff in every location. To be able to do that accurately, I think this game more than any one that we’ve made has the most connections to all the graphic art, the posters, the books on the shelf, the newspapers.. [It’s all] really connected.”
So, while we may not have a clear idea of where Gears of War is headed in the future, we know that at least the story set in the past will preserve all the lore already created, and celebrate it. “It’s the most lore-rich game I think,” Fawcette added.
A Shift in Movement Mechanics
If you’re at all interested in competitive Gears of War and have seen the latest trailer, you’ll know that things are about to change, and not just because we’re getting new guns and maps. Roadie running is transformed in Gears of War: E-Day. Instead of Marcus and crew hunkering down and running with a camera closer to their back and the screen shakes, E-Day pulls back as they run forward.
“There’s a whole bunch of reasons [for the change], but a lot of it has to do with the variety we have on traversal spaces,” Searcy said. “We have small and large spaces and this just lets you play with the battlefield so much more. You can see what’s going on. You can move a lot more naturally.”
This comes with the other new movement options, including a slide, jumping, and new cover mechanics. All these changes, though, mean some mechanics of old won’t be the same — specifically wall bouncing.
“We have forms of wall canceling in there, but you won’t be able to do [wall bouncing] the way you’ve done it in the past,” Searcy said. “There are lots of other things you can do. There are [ways to] play with it, it’s not entirely gone. We think we found a balance in terms of how that really feels. But back to my catchphrase, it is a new game. If you come back expecting it to play exactly like a previous Gears game, it won’t be that way. [It] will probably be an adjustment, but it is also built around the same mechanics.”
Fawcette added that the team was thoughtful about the onboarding to E-Day, which includes a practice space and control customization. “There is a muscle memory to Gears, right? So we want to be really respectful in how people have come to Gears in the past, but also give people a chance to make it their own,” she said.
On the onboarding and customization note, Matt Searcy confirmed that if having the active reload bar in the center of the screen isn’t your thing, you can change a setting to move it back to the top right.
There were a few other interesting notes the trio shared about this entry in the Gears series during our interview:
- E-Day may have added jumping, but Searcy said that it’s not a platformer. We won’t be asked to “jump across multiple levels.” Instead, the developers intend it to be a tool for accessing new flanking paths.
- The campaign is still linear, but some levels feature larger areas to explore. Searcy said in addition to allowing players to choose how to approach a target, we’ll get to learn more about Bravo Squad.
- Searcy said Gears of War: E-Day is “longer than any campaign [The Coalition has] built” at over 14 hours, with more collectibles than it’s ever had before in a campaign. Of course, this includes the classic COG Tags.
- Fawcette said that all four members of Bravo Squad are playable right from the beginning. You don’t have to play as Marcus.
There’s still a lot we haven’t seen of Gears of War: E-Day, though it won’t be long until we do. The Coalition will run a multiplayer open beta for E-Day on August 6, and I anticipate we’ll hear more about the game around then. Gears of War: E-Day is out October 6 and confirmed to be a console exclusive on Xbox. Catch up on all the news from Xbox’s big summer showcase with IGN’s roundup.
Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN and a member of Unlocked. If it wasn’t obvious, she’s a big Gears of War fan and recommends folks check out the book Gears of War: Aspho Fields in preparation for E-Day. You can sometimes find her on Bluesky and Instagram.