Gears of War: E-Day Pre-Install Opens Tuesday, September 29

Tomorrow is when the waiting turns into a progress bar. Gears of War: E-Day, the prequel that puts a young Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago on the streets of Sera the day the Locust erupt, has gone gold, and The Coalition has published the whole launch calendar on Xbox Wire. Pre-install opens on Tuesday, September 29, Premium Edition owners get in on October 1, and the rest of us, Game Pass included, start on October 6. It is the first mainline Gears in seven years, so we figured a clean, dated rundown was worth having in one place.

The short version: one download window starting tomorrow morning in the US, two unlock times a few days apart, the same 8 AM Pacific hour for all of them, and a 115 GB install on PC that has to sit on an SSD.

Video: Xbox on YouTube

Pre-install tomorrow, two unlock dates, one hour

Pre-install begins on September 29 at 8 AM Pacific, which is 11 AM Eastern, 4 PM in the UK and 5 PM in Central Europe. It covers Xbox Series X|S, PC through the Xbox app, and Steam, and it applies to pre-orders as well as Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members. If you plan to play on day one, this is the download to start early: on PC the official spec sheet lists 115 GB for every preset, with an SSD required. Xbox's post does not give a console figure, so budget generously on Series X|S too.

The unlock is split in two. Premium Edition owners start on October 1 at 8 AM Pacific, 15:00 UTC, which is 5 PM in Central Europe and midnight on October 2 in Japan. That is five days of early access. Everyone else, including Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members, starts on October 6 at the same 8 AM Pacific hour. There is no midnight local unlock and no regional stagger: it is one moment worldwide, on every platform. The game is Xbox Play Anywhere for digital purchases, so one copy covers console and PC, and there is no native Xbox One version.

Editions, the $30 upgrade, and what is in the box

The Standard Edition is $69.99 and the Premium Edition is $99.99 on the Xbox Store and Steam. Premium is the only way into the October 1 window, and according to the official site it also bundles the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, 1,000 Iron of premium currency, and five seasonal customization packs starting with the Emergence Pack at launch. If you are on Game Pass and want the early start without paying full price twice, the Xbox Store lists a Premium Edition Upgrade at $30.00 that unlocks the same early access and extras on top of your subscription. We covered the day one Game Pass placement in the September wave two roundup, and that has not changed: E-Day is there for Ultimate and PC Game Pass on October 6, not for the Premium tier at launch.

As for what you are downloading, the campaign runs solo, in two player split screen on console, or with up to four players online. Multiplayer ships with Horde Siege, the class based co-op mode with Assault, Marksman, Medic and Breacher roles, and Versus, the 4v4 competitive side with ranked and social playlists. We went through the twelve player Horde Siege reveal when The Coalition showed it in July, and the open beta in August was the last public look before this.

The PC spec sheet

The Coalition published three tiers, and the headline is that a hardware ray tracing capable graphics card is required. Minimum targets 1080p at 60 fps on the Medium preset with an RTX 5050, RTX 2060, RX 6600 or RX 9060, a Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i5-10400, 6 GB of VRAM and 12 GB of RAM. Recommended targets 1440p at 60 fps or more on High with an RTX 5060, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT or RX 9060 XT, a Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K, 8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM. Ultra targets 4K at 60 fps or more with an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 7900 XT, a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Core i7-14700K and 12 GB of VRAM. All three tiers assume upscaling through DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, XeSS or TSR, and the game ships with ray traced reflections, shadows and global illumination, a built in benchmark, HDR and ultrawide support.

Our take: the plan is tidy and the only real friction is the disk space. If you are on Game Pass, pre-install tomorrow, wait for Tuesday, October 6, and skip the $30 upgrade unless five days matter to you more than a fresh 115 GB SSD purchase. If you pre-ordered Premium, Thursday afternoon in Europe is your start line.