Gears of War: E-Day is set in one city as it's both "a rich environment to tell a great story" and "the best gameplay playground for an intense cover-based shooter"

Gears of War: E-Day's creative director, Matt Searcy, has confirmed that the story of the game will take place in a single city.

Rather than follow up on Gears 5, The Coalition surprised us with the news that the next Gears of War will instead be a prequel focusing on Emergence Day from the perspective of Marcus and Dom.

In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+, Searcy spoke about the decision to make E-Day a far more intimate affair than the open-ended Gears 5. He explains, "The story of Emergence Day is really about what happened to the people of Sera. It was a massive, worldwide event, and we wanted players to feel the impact, so we set the whole game in a single city called Kalona."

The decision to set it here was based on its importance to the COG's, Searcy explains, as it's named after one of its founders, Roman Kalona. "Our story is set over consecutive days, so players can become intimate with the city," he says, adding, "We want them to feel the loss of what was here: the history, the people and the lives they were living."

Searcy says Kalona is "a rich environment to tell a great story," but on top of that, a city is great for the gameplay too, as "it's the best gameplay playground for an intense cover-based shooter like Gears."

We haven't seen much of Gears of War: E-Day since its announcement, but it's still scheduled to release sometime in 2026 on Xbox and PC, so hopefully we'll see something soon.

Gears of War: E-Day is part of our Big in 2026 series, check out our Big in 2026 hub for coverage of 50 of the year's biggest games including the likes of Halo: Campaign Evolved and Resident Evil Requiem.