While Gears of War: E-Day rewinds the clock, devs are looking to freshen up the 20-year-old series: "We wanted to build a game that feels like Gears but plays like new"

Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel that's taking us back to where it all started - Emergence Day, when the subterranean alien critters known as the Locust erupted from the ground and kickstarted a saga that's lasted almost two decades. But despite rewinding the clocks for this year's shooter, developers at The Coalition still hope to create something that "plays like new."

Creative director Matt Searcy says as much in an exclusive chat with GamesRadar+ dedicated entirely to the upcoming prequel story due out on PC and Xbox Series X|S sometime this year, which is maybe not coincidentally both the series' 20th anniversary and publisher Xbox's 25th anniversary.

When asked how Gears of War: E-Day reflects on that often bloody, always iconic two-decade roadie run, Searcy says the team "can't think of a bigger way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Gears than with the release of Gears of War: E-Day," which is apparently The Coalition's "most ambitious game yet, entirely built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5."

He explains: "Even though this is a return to our roots with Marcus and Dom facing the Locust for the first time, we wanted to build a game that feels like Gears but plays like new. E-Day is a celebration of both the past and what's to come in the future for a franchise that's meant so much to us and our fans."

Series mainstay Marcus Fenix and wartime bestie Dominic Santiago are back in the limelight this time around, with both of their original actors returning too. I'm glad The Coalition is planning to do more than just retread ground covered in the first Gears of War game, though – we'll just need to wait a while more before seeing how it all shakes out, chainsaw rifles and all, since Gears of War: E-Day isn't scheduled to appear in today's Xbox Developer Direct.

Gears of War: E-Day is part of our extensive Big in 2026 hub, taking exclusive looks at the year's most exciting releases from Halo: Campaign Evolved to Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.