Key Takeaways:
- Gears of War: E-Day requires ~120.04 GB on PC and ~120.5 GB on Xbox Series X|S — both must be on an SSD.
- Preloading is now live ahead of the October 1 early access start (Premium Edition owners), with the full launch on October 6, 2026.
- Players can choose which modes to install — Campaign, Horde Siege, or Versus — to save space if needed.
- The game is available on Xbox Game Pass from day one on both console and PC.
- Recommended PC specs include a 6-core CPU, RTX 3060 Ti or equivalent (8GB VRAM), 16GB RAM, and support for DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, and XeSS 3.0.
- E-Day will be among the first Xbox titles to support Microsoft’s new Mythic Achievements system — the Xbox equivalent of PlayStation’s Platinum Trophy.
- The game went gold on September 18, roughly three weeks ahead of launch.
If you’ve been keeping Gears of War: E-Day on the radar and you’ve got a launch-day install planned, it’s time to go check your storage situation. The Coalition and Xbox have officially confirmed how much space the game will take up on both PC and console — and it’s a chunky number that will push some players to do a bit of housekeeping before October.
Gears of War E-Day File Size: PC and Xbox
With preloading now underway, The Coalition has confirmed the official install sizes. On PC (via the Xbox app or Steam), Gears of War: E-Day will require approximately 120.04 GB of SSD storage. On Xbox Series X|S, the number is slightly higher at approximately 120.5 GB.
That’s a meaningful step up from previous entries in the series — Gears 5 launched at around 80 GB in 2019, so E-Day represents a roughly 50% increase in install footprint. For Xbox Series X owners working with the console’s 1TB internal drive, that’s about one-tenth of your total nominal storage, and with system files and reserved space eating into the usable figure, it’s worth checking what you’ve got free before the early access window opens.
An SSD is mandatory on PC — the game won’t run from a traditional hard drive — so older setups that rely on HDDs for game storage will need an upgrade or a free SSD partition ready to go.
How to Save Space: Install Only the Modes You Want
The good news is that you don’t have to install everything at once. Gears of War: E-Day lets you choose which game modes to install individually, similar to how first-party Xbox titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection handle it. From the game’s Manage screen, players can select from:
- Campaign — the main story mode, playable solo, in split-screen co-op for two on console, or online co-op for up to four players
- Horde Siege — the cooperative wave-based mode for up to four players against AI
- Versus — the competitive 4v4 multiplayer mode
If you’re only jumping in for the story when it launches, skipping Horde Siege and Versus will shave a chunk off the download size. On PC, this is managed through the Xbox app on Windows. On Xbox consoles, it’s handled through system settings. The Coalition has also confirmed they plan to keep expanding Horde Siege post-launch with new classes, missions, modifiers, and seasonal content — so that install will only grow over time for players who keep up with updates.
PC System Requirements for Gears of War: E-Day
For PC players, here’s what you’re looking at across the minimum and recommended tiers:
Minimum (targeting 1080p / 60 FPS at Medium settings):
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit (22H2)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i7-6850K / Intel Core i5-10400
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060 / RTX 5050 / AMD RX 6600 / RX 9060 / Intel Arc A580
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Storage: 115–120 GB SSD (required)
- DirectX: Version 12
Recommended (targeting 1440p / 60+ FPS at High settings):
- OS: Windows 11 64-bit (25H2)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel Core i5-11600K
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti / RTX 5060 / AMD RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT / Intel Arc B580
- VRAM: 8 GB
- RAM: 16 GB
On the upscaling side, E-Day supports DLSS 4.5 (Nvidia), AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 3.0, alongside Unreal Engine’s built-in TSR for broader hardware compatibility. The game also supports ray tracing (reflections, shadows, and global illumination are all raytraced), HDR, and ultrawide monitors on PC. Hardware ray tracing support is required even at minimum spec — cards without dedicated ray tracing hardware may not run the game at all.
What Is Gears of War: E-Day?
For anyone coming in fresh: Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel to the original 2006 Gears of War, developed by The Coalition and published by Xbox Game Studios. It’s the sixth mainline entry in the series and the first new Gears release in seven years. Set 14 years before the events of the original game, E-Day follows Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago — the franchise’s iconic leads — during the catastrophic first day of the Locust Horde’s emergence on the planet Sera. This is the moment that changed everything in the Gears universe, and the game is built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5 to make it hit as hard visually as the lore demands.
The game went gold on September 18 — roughly three weeks before launch — meaning the core development cycle is complete. Post-launch patches for bugs and performance are still likely to follow, as is standard for any major release. The game also includes a built-in PC benchmark tool with advanced settings to help players dial in their configuration before diving into the campaign.
Mythic Achievements and Xbox Game Pass
Gears of War: E-Day will be one of the first Xbox Game Studios releases to support the newly introduced Mythic Achievements system — Microsoft’s answer to PlayStation’s Platinum Trophies. Mythic Achievements represent a single high-prestige completion reward per game, going beyond the traditional Gamerscore framework. The system is currently in the Xbox Insider testing phase, and E-Day is set to be among the early titles that implement it at launch.
The game is also available through Xbox Game Pass from day one on both console and PC — so if you’re already subscribed, you won’t need to buy it separately. Early access for Premium and Collector’s Edition buyers starts October 1, with the full standard launch for everyone else on October 6, 2026. The game also supports Xbox Play Anywhere, meaning a single purchase covers both Xbox and PC.
For more on what’s launching this week in gaming, check out our roundup of the Hades Ballads of the Underworld concert now free on YouTube and the story of how The Witcher 3 Remastered broke its all-time Steam player record on day one.
