Even though some think the days of console exclusivity are dead and buried like Duke Nukem, there are still rumblings about the console wars as the Blues and the Greens fly their banners.
With the global console gaming industry said to have generated nearly $46 billion in 2025, it remains a booming business.
Still, with significant gaming growth being pushed by the long-awaited release of the Nintendo Switch 2, you might be asking how Microsoft and Sony are doing.
Xbox sales have apparently been hit the hardest, with a massive 70% slump year-on-year, but with former Xbox exclusives like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Doom: The Dark Ages already available on PS5, are you that surprised?
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2026 sees another flagship franchise switching sides, with Halo: Campaign Evolved also becoming a Sony pony next year.
Away from accusations that the Xbox Series S is little more than a Game Pass machine, and with Game Pass prices being controversially boosted, Microsoft is trying to claw us back in 2026. Even though Gears of War has also jumped ship to PS5 in the form of Gears of War: Reloaded, the series' next entry should remain shackled to the Xbox...for now.
The Gears name has lain dormant since 2019's Gears 5 served as a somewhat disappointing outing, but after years of speculation, Gears of War: E-Day was finally revealed during an Xbox showcase at July 2024's Summer Game Fest.
A prequel story taking place 14 years before the OG Gears, we see a much younger Marcus Fenix (John DiMaggio) and Dom Santiago (Carlos Ferro) getting to grips with the Locust Horde as the world goes to sh*t.
Fans were suitably impressed in an in-engine trailer, but with things going dark since then, some were worried that E-Day had gone to ground. We know that studios and games have an awkward habit of announcing things too early and leading to fears that we might never see them (we're looking at you, Star Wars Eclipse), but now, E-Day is rising from the ashes.
We were originally told that E-Day was coming out in 2026, which has thankfully been reconfirmed by the Xbox social channels.
Even though we don't get a narrower window of when Marcus and Dom will get their origin story, we're simply told, "Emergence Begins. 2026." It's accompanied by a suitably brooding piece of artwork, but for now, that's it.
Developers The Coalition and People Can Fly need to be careful when they release in 2026, as it's a suitably massive one for gaming. Alongside Resident Evil Requiem, Marvel's Wolverine, and 007 First Light, the team will want to steer well clear of the black hole of pixels that is GTA 6.
Either way, Gears of War: E-Day will hopefully be a long-awaited return to form that takes us back to the heady nostalgia of blasting Locusts on the Xbox 360.