Searcy was blunt about the platform question.
Well, we never talked about it going to PS5.
Fawcette added that the project's direction was consistent from the start.
It was never changed.
Searcy also framed Gears of War: E-Day as a natural fit for Xbox's first party lineup.
I would say that, Gears as an exclusive, makes a tonne of sense.
It's kind of an honour, and exciting, to be one of the Xbox flagship titles.
With Xbox Series hardware trailing PS5 in installed base, Searcy and art director Aryan Hanbeck said audience size was not a major worry.
Of course, it's awesome to have [more] people play our games, but for Xbox and PC, you've got what is out there.
We're not too concerned about the size of the audience.
We've shipped to audiences smaller before, and there are great shooters on Xbox already.
Gears of War: E-Day is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S, with a release date set for October 6. The game received an extended showcase last weekend through a dedicated Xbox Direct, where Microsoft also confirmed that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution would not come to PS5. Xbox stated that exclusivity for those titles is not time limited, while games already announced for multiplatform release would stay on that path.
As part of our focus on the return of Xbox, we also announced that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be Xbox console exclusives.
These are not timed exclusives. Games already announced for multiplatform releases will stick to that plan, we're committed to investing in and growing Xbox both on console and beyond.
Searcy, Hanbeck, and technical director Kate Rayner also discussed development, calling E-Day The Coalition's first Gears entry since 2015 built without reusing assets from prior games. Searcy credited Unreal Engine 5 for modernizing the series while keeping its identity intact.
We took advantage of UE5 to bring Gears up to speed with where modern gaming is, without losing what makes it authentic.
You're playing a sweaty Gears game, but it's entirely built from scratch to capture the emotional core of those older games.
Hanbeck said the team wanted to lean into darker, horror adjacent spaces the franchise was known for in its earlier entries, using new tech for light, shadow, and visual weight.
We wanted to lean into the horror-adjacent elements Gears always had.
Light and dark, getting into scarier spaces, dynamic shadows. This tech lets us do that in a way we couldn't before. You really don't want to tell that story if you can't deliver on the visual gravitas of what has to go with it. It deserves a certain amount of weight.
