Despite receiving strong reviews, Gears of War: E-Day has reportedly sold just over 320,000 copies in its first week across all platforms. Data firm Alinea Analytics estimates that only 230,000 units were sold outright, with 168,000 of those on Steam and 62,000 on Xbox consoles and PC. This contrasts sharply with the 1.7 million players who accessed the game through a Game Pass subscription.
Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott noted on X that while Xbox accounts for the majority of revenue, a significant portion of players opted for the Premium Edition upgrade at $30 for five days of early access rather than purchasing the full game. Elliott suggests that Game Pass, while providing broad access, may be cannibalizing potential premium sales without necessarily driving substantial new subscriber growth or engagement from existing subscribers.
"In a world without day-one Game Pass, many of these folks would have bought E-Day at $70," Elliott wrote. "They paid $30 for five days early access to something they don’t own. Xbox is, in effect, charging its most valuable customers the least, based on a hangover from a tried-and-exhausted strategy from a previous administration."
The analysis implies that if a game of Gears of War: E-Day's critical standing is not achieving robust sales figures due to its business model, there may be an issue with that model itself. Elliott posited that increasing the price of day-one Game Pass access could be a potential solution, though a cheaper, ad-supported tier of Game Pass would not address the core issue of loyal fans potentially paying less for access.
This situation echoes Microsoft's previous announcement to remove day-one first-party releases from Game Pass, a move previously stated for titles like Call of Duty, in an effort to lower the service's price. The performance of Gears of War: E-Day may influence future decisions regarding the inclusion of new first-party titles on the Game Pass service from its developer, The Coalition.