Gears of War: E-Day has officially gone gold, with The Coalition also confirming its pre-install schedule and final PC specifications ahead of the game’s October 6 release. The announcement came directly from studio head Mike Crump through Xbox Wire on September 17. Pre-installation will open September 29, while Premium Edition owners can begin playing several days ahead of the worldwide launch.
Pre-install begins at 8 a.m. Pacific Time, or 15:00 UTC, on September 29 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Steam. Premium Edition owners will receive up to five days of early access beginning October 1 at the same time, while the standard worldwide release follows October 6. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members will receive access on launch day, with E-Day already included among Xbox Game Pass’ September Wave 2 additions.
Going gold is a significant production milestone for The Coalition as the studio enters the final weeks before release. It indicates that the game has reached its release build stage, although development work can continue through launch updates and subsequent patches. Crump said the milestone brings the studio another step closer to letting players experience Emergence Day themselves following several rounds of public testing earlier this year.
The Coalition has also published the final launch specifications for the PC version, expanding the requirements into minimum, recommended and ultra configurations. At minimum, E-Day targets 1080p at 60 FPS on the medium preset with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 or RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 6600 or RX 9060, alongside an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6850K or Core i5-10400. The minimum configuration requires 12 GB of RAM, 6 GB of VRAM and an SSD.
The recommended configuration targets 1440p at 60 FPS or higher using the high preset and supported upscaling. The listed graphics cards include an RTX 5060 or RTX 3060 Ti on the Nvidia side and an RX 6700 XT or RX 9060 XT from AMD, paired with a Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K. Recommended systems require 16 GB of RAM and 8 GB of VRAM.
For the ultra configuration, The Coalition targets 4K at 60 FPS or higher with upscaling while using the ultra graphics preset. That tier calls for an RTX 5070 Ti or Radeon RX 7900 XT, with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Core i7-14700K processor. It retains the 16 GB system-memory requirement but increases required VRAM to 12 GB, while all three configurations list 115 GB of SSD storage.
The PC release also supports modern reconstruction and graphics technologies including Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS, alongside hardware-accelerated ray-traced reflections, shadows and global illumination. The Coalition has additionally included a built-in benchmark, HDR support and ultrawide monitor compatibility. The studio said it continued working on PC stability and performance across different hardware configurations following the multiplayer open beta.
E-Day is set 14 years before the original Gears of War and follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago during the Locust Horde’s emergence. Alongside its campaign, the game includes competitive Versus multiplayer and Horde Siege, an expanded take on the series’ cooperative survival mode. The game’s 55-achievement launch list has also been revealed, covering the campaign, Horde Siege, Versus, collectibles and completion challenges.
Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6 for Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Xbox app and Steam. Premium Edition owners can start playing October 1, while pre-installation opens for supported platforms on September 29.
