Gears of War: E-Day, canceled at the last minute for PS5, could have cost half a billion to make

Gears of War: E-Day may be one of the most expensive games ever made, which makes Microsoft’s decision to cancel a near-complete PS5 version of the game even more puzzling.

Kotaku kicked off the speculation earlier today by citing sources claiming that the third-person shooter cost a staggering $500 million to create.

That’s far more than the $300 million attached to titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine, both of which include large Disney licensing fees.

Although the figure seems staggering at first glance, Chris Dring of Game Business and Jez Corden of Windows Central both reported that the figure was accurate. According to Corden, however, there is debate over how the budget was distributed.

Kotaku claims, given the huge sums of money involved, that Microsoft knew E-Day wouldn’t get its money back never mind platforms it shipped on, hence its surprise decision to remove the PS5 version.

It’s worth noting at this point that we’ve had a number of rumors about the game’s budget recently, many of which were quickly debunked. The numbers attached to Physint immediately come to mind.

So it’s entirely possible that this is misinformation, or something that only the highest echelons of Microsoft’s finance department know about.

However, as VGC’s Andy Robinson rightly points out, Xbox management’s recent tendency to quickly debunk rumors on social media makes its silence in this particular situation stand out.

Forecasts by Alinea Analytics recently put E-Day sales at around 311,000 copies, with most players choosing to play via Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft is reportedly removing day one games from its subscription next year.

Assuming these numbers are accurate, I would agree that the PS5 wouldn’t have helped the latest Gears of War make its money back. But could it have helped? Well, you don’t have to be a business analyst to answer this question.