It has now been five years since the release of Gears 5 which I reviewed a few months after release here. Although acknowledging that the visual design and gameplay was very good, I was critical of the narrative direction the game took as well the ignorance (deliberate or otherwise), of the game’s writers with regards to the series lore. As the game was released on Xbox Game Pass (which is how I played it), it is hard to work out whether it was a commercial success but I would guess it didn’t make back its budget. The claim it was played by three million people on launch is less impressive when you remember that many of these people could have paid as little as $1 for the introductory subscription price. I know I’ve taken advantage of this a few times and I can’t be the only one. Even those that paid the regular subscription price paid substantially less than what the game cost at retail. Although this cannot be good for retail (or even digital sales), Microsoft seems quite happy to release its major first party releases this way and at least as of writing, still have the money to lose.
What better indicates the failure of the game is the five years that have elapsed since release as well as the June announcement of Gears of War: E-Day.
