Gears of War: E-Day's Xbox exclusivity didn't lift hardware sales, analyst says

Keeping Gears of War: E-Day off PS5 hasn't sold more Xboxes, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.

Speaking to The Game Business, Piscatella said the console exclusivity "hasn't made any difference in terms of the hardware trend. In fact, it keeps getting worse."

The numbers back him up. Nielsen IQ data showed UK Xbox sales dropping 22% in October, and Circana saw no uplift in the US after E-Day launched.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma played up the return to console exclusivity during the company's summer livestream, despite word that a PS5 version was far along in development. Players had mostly expected E-Day to be multiplatform until Xbox revealed it as a console exclusive four months before launch.

Piscatella had kind words for the game itself, calling it a "Gears-ass Gears of War game." But he argued that the exclusivity meant "you chop the legs out" from its potential to boost Xbox more broadly. "At least in the short term, it hasn't made a difference," he said.

He was just as blunt about Xbox's other recent moves. He said the disc-to-digital program "hasn't changed their sales of new physical software trend at all," and that pulling new Call of Duty games from Game Pass as day-one releases meant the franchise "lost a ton of engagement."

Meanwhile, sources told The Verge that E-Day has sold over 400,000 copies across console and PC. That figure doesn't include Game Pass, where the game launched day one, with early access five days ahead of release through a $30 Premium Edition Upgrade.

Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott estimated in an October 9 post that 1.7 million players had accessed E-Day, which helps explain why the sales figure looks low for such a big release. IGN gave the game a 9 out of 10.