Gears of War: E-Day Loses Fan-Favorite Features, Developers Plan to Return Some

The Coalition has also explained the reason behind their absence.

Gears of War: E-Day launched without several familiar franchise features, including the ability to use enemies as meat shields, chainsaw duels, certain weapon types, private lobbies, and leaderboards. The Coalition explained that the cause was not a lack of interest in these options, but rather a near-total rebuilding of the project’s foundational gameplay.

The developers shared that they started work on E-Day with a blank slate, recreating the entire gameplay sandbox from scratch. This approach was intended to provide a more cohesive gameplay experience across all core modes, including campaign, PvE, and PvP.

The new foundation allowed the studio to experiment with the cover system, combat mechanics, and enemies. However, that decision came with an obvious trade-off: carrying every single feature from previous Gears of War installments over to the new game by launch proved impossible. As a result, certain familiar options were left behind, including private lobbies and leaderboards.

The Coalition does not claim that the listed features have vanished from the franchise forever. The studio is not yet promising to bring back every single one of them, as its current priority is ensuring the most stable and high-quality launch possible for Gears of War: E-Day. Nevertheless, the developers are monitoring “how and what” can be brought back or improved in the future, taking fan-demanded features and mechanics into account.