Gears of War: E-Day announces beta dates and performance details

The Coalition and Xbox have announced the beta testing schedule for Gears of War: E-Day, ahead of its official launch on October 6, 2026. The testing phase includes an Early Access Beta for players who have pre-ordered the game on Xbox Series X|S or Steam and possess an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass membership. This phase is scheduled from August 6 to August 10, 2026.

Following early access, an Open Beta will be available to all players on Steam and Xbox Series X/S from August 13 to August 17, 2026. Participants can earn exclusive cosmetic rewards, such as the Epic Blast Damage Mags character skin and the Crush the Bug weapon skin set.

Technical assessments of the beta reveal varying performance levels across platforms. On Xbox Series X, the PvP Performance Mode has shown frame rate fluctuations between 50 and 75 FPS. The Xbox Series S maintains more stability but rarely exceeds 60 FPS. For the campaign and Horde modes, players can choose between Quality, Balanced, and Performance modes. On PC, high frame rates are achievable with RTX 50-series and 40-series graphics cards, while an RTX 3060 is recommended for 1080p settings using DLSS to maintain 60 FPS.