[0:00] Why? Why? It's just h ah
[0:05] it's happening again. a game that I've
[0:10] really been sitting here fingers crossed
[0:12] with a rabbit's foot shoved in my ass
[0:14] that you know fourleaf clover making
[0:16] wishes on shooting stars hoping and
[0:19] praying that is going to actually be
[0:21] good and revitalized one of the
[0:23] revitalize one of the most important
[0:25] franchises in my life has now just had a
[0:28] piece of information drop like a bomb
[0:31] here and has just it's made me sick to
[0:33] my stomach it's it's oh it's Oh. Oh,
[0:38] fart. No poop, bro. Gears of War Eday
[0:41] reportedly costs a staggering 400
[0:44] million to develop. 400 million clams
[0:48] banished to the Shadow Realm for the
[0:50] upcoming Gears of War game. Now, the
[0:52] source of this information comes from
[0:54] Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who
[0:56] stated, "Gears of War Eday's budget is
[0:58] insane. I've heard upwards of 400
[1:00] million." So, maybe this is a game of
[1:02] telephone, and it's completely
[1:03] incorrect. It's not actually that much.
[1:05] You know, this isn't like concrete
[1:07] definitive proof that it is north of 400
[1:10] million or around 400 million dloons or
[1:12] anything like that because I mean we
[1:15] don't know for sure like we don't have
[1:17] access to the balance sheet. If we did
[1:18] maybe they have a hundred million put
[1:20] into Neidos or something for the team to
[1:22] enjoy at their desks. Like who's who
[1:23] really [ __ ] knows? But from what I
[1:26] know Tom Henderson has a pretty solid
[1:29] reputation for this kind of reporting.
[1:31] So there is a chance that that is
[1:32] correct. And if it is, there's a nice
[1:35] comparison this article gives about
[1:37] Marvel Spider-Man 2, which had a budget
[1:39] of 300 million, which means it needed
[1:41] 7.2 million copies at full price to just
[1:44] break even. And for comparison, Gears of
[1:47] War 2, the bestselling entry, sold 6.75
[1:52] million. And I actually went to the
[1:54] Gears of War 2 midnight release. That
[1:56] was a huge moment. Gears of War at that
[2:00] time was a cultural phenomenon. people
[2:03] even outside of the gaming space were
[2:04] talking about Gears War. It was always
[2:06] Gears of War and Halo and then
[2:08] eventually with Call of Duty 4, Call of
[2:10] Duty 4 coming into the fold. But the
[2:12] point is at its heyday of relevancy and
[2:16] you know being a part of the mainstream
[2:18] gaming consciousness, it sold 6.75
[2:21] million which would not recoup its
[2:23] budget. And that's at full price. it
[2:26] wouldn't recoup its budget with eBay
[2:29] going to Game Pass.
[2:32] That's that's not that's not going to be
[2:34] full price. Like, and I also don't see
[2:37] it like eclipsing these numbers of Gears
[2:39] War II. People aren't like salivating
[2:41] and, you know, you know, scratching at
[2:43] themselves ferociously waiting for a new
[2:45] Gears entry. Most people forgot it ever
[2:48] existed. Most people don't care. So, it
[2:50] just seems like it's already curtains.
[2:52] If this budget is accurate,
[2:55] this is just it's unacceptable. Why are
[2:58] these games budgets so incredibly
[3:01] bloated? I I refuse to believe it. Like
[3:04] a like a growth spurt in my 30s. I shant
[3:08] in such heresy. Why is it almost half a
[3:12] billion dollars? There's This has never
[3:14] been a good thing. Like this has
[3:15] literally never been a good thing. Halo
[3:17] Infinite budget got up like half a
[3:18] billion dollars or whatever and and it's
[3:20] like look what happened there, right?
[3:22] This has never been a good thing.
[3:23] Concord, for example, Lord have mercy on
[3:26] us. Forgive us for our sins. This has
[3:29] always just been a recipe for disaster.
[3:31] This is just it feels doomed to fail no
[3:33] matter what. Even if it comes out and
[3:35] it's a ballistic turbo banger, it's not
[3:37] going to make that back. Like it's like
[3:41] I don't see a world where it possibly
[3:42] could when it's an Xbox exclusive. it's
[3:45] going to be on Game Pass. Like, how does
[3:47] it even have a chance at recouping that?
[3:50] So, it's once again just going to bury
[3:52] the Gears franchise even deeper into the
[3:55] dirt where it's already like a forgotten
[3:58] relic of the past that people don't even
[4:00] think about anymore. Like, it's just oh,
[4:03] it's painful. Why is it so much? It's
[4:08] just the only game that has a budget
[4:12] like this. Well, more than this that
[4:14] probably will be able to make it back
[4:17] and then some with some gravy on top is
[4:20] Grand Theft Auto 6. But Gears of War
[4:22] Eday is not Grand Theft Auto 6. Gears of
[4:25] War Eday has about as much a chance at
[4:28] competing with the success of GTA 6 as
[4:30] [ __ ] the Killer Bean game does. And
[4:32] Killer Bean was developed by one man in
[4:35] a cave with a box of scraps like Tony
[4:37] Stark. And it's very fun game by the
[4:39] way. It's got a lot of problems, but I
[4:41] have been enjoying it. Point is, there
[4:43] is no world where Gears of War Eday
[4:46] should have a budget like this. It just
[4:48] feels completely [ __ ] from the
[4:50] start, and it hasn't even begun really.
[4:52] And the thing is, I actually was
[4:54] pleasantly surprised by the trailer and
[4:56] the gameplay they showed. Like, yeah,
[4:58] Marcus Phoenix looks a little odd in
[5:00] civilian clothing. It's weird seeing him
[5:03] not oiled up, bulked up, [ __ ]
[5:06] creatine, testosterone, and oxytocin
[5:10] [ __ ] flowing from every pore in his
[5:11] body.
[5:12] >> But the gameplay looks fun. It looks
[5:15] solid. It feels like a return to form in
[5:16] terms of grittiness like the original
[5:18] had captured. So yeah, like aside from
[5:21] people pointing out that, you know,
[5:22] Marcus looks like he's on Osimpic, I
[5:25] think most people are pleasantly
[5:26] surprised to see gears look like this.
[5:29] One of the big problems I have about
[5:31] Modern Gears games is how weightless it
[5:33] feels and how there's no punch to it
[5:35] anymore. What they showed throughout all
[5:37] the gameplay in this demonstration as
[5:40] well as like the further stuff they
[5:41] showed makes me feel like it's back to
[5:43] that really chunky feel. Whereas like
[5:46] the more modern Gears games felt more
[5:48] cartoonish where I couldn't even tell
[5:49] when I killed something cuz they just
[5:51] instantly blow up into like this balloon
[5:53] of meat. here. It just it it to me it is
[5:57] feeling like the original did. But it's
[6:00] also very possible that I'm just really
[6:01] nostalgic now and I just desperately
[6:03] want a good Gears game cuz Gears has
[6:06] been in the gutter for so so long and
[6:09] the last one that came out was
[6:12] not good. I really want the game to be
[6:15] good and from what I've seen so far, it
[6:17] at least doesn't look bad. So, we're
[6:20] going in the right direction compared to
[6:21] the previous Gears games at least. But
[6:23] with this budget, it feels like even if
[6:25] it's amazing, it won't matter because I
[6:28] don't see a world where it could
[6:30] possibly
[6:32] make money or be like a justifiable
[6:35] investment with that figure. Now, again,
[6:38] it's not like confirmed that that's
[6:40] accurate or anything. And as pointed out
[6:43] by Henderson as well, let's be honest,
[6:45] it probably wasn't going to make money
[6:47] even if it was on PlayStation. But it's
[6:49] definitely not going like who's buying
[6:51] an Xbox and Game Pass for Gears. No one
[6:53] in my opinion and there's no Xboxes to
[6:55] buy anywhere because they can't make
[6:57] anymore.
[6:59] I I mean it's hard to like strongly
[7:02] disagree there. Even if it was going to
[7:04] PlayStation like originally it was about
[7:07] you know we had this brief golden moment
[7:10] where it was looking like exclusivity
[7:12] was going to be a thing of the past
[7:14] where you can play the games that you
[7:15] want to play on your preferred console
[7:18] or on PC. Like exclusivity was starting
[7:20] to dwindle a little bit but now it's
[7:21] back in full swing. So now this isn't
[7:24] going to be hitting PlayStation, which
[7:25] means it's cutting off another entire
[7:28] market market that it's going like I
[7:30] think it's desperately going to need to
[7:33] grasp onto those honkers and not let go.
[7:36] Like please think of Gears. Look at
[7:39] Gears. Here's an option, a new a new
[7:40] game. Check it out. But now that it's
[7:42] exclusive to Xbox and Xbox is already
[7:46] far and away the least popular console
[7:49] out there. It's like Ouya in 2026. Like
[7:53] people are not flocking to Xbox. It has
[7:55] been in a bad spot. Something I've
[7:57] talked about a lot. It's sad, but that's
[7:59] just the reality of it. Phil Spencer
[8:01] also wasn't shy about mentioning that
[8:03] every opportunity he got about how they
[8:05] lost the console wars. I do think under
[8:07] Asha now they're at least trying to
[8:09] steer the ship in a better direction and
[8:11] fix certain things, but it's still not
[8:14] saved. And I don't think that Xbox is in
[8:16] a strong enough place where somehow it's
[8:19] going to make Gears successful and every
[8:22] single even if every single person on
[8:24] the planet that owned an Xbox also
[8:26] bought Gears of War Eday at full price,
[8:28] it probably still wouldn't make back
[8:30] that budget. I don't know if there's
[8:31] enough people on Earth with an Xbox to
[8:32] do so. Like it's just it feels so
[8:37] outrageous. Like it already feels like
[8:39] it's defeated with a budget like that
[8:41] before it even releases. And I think
[8:44] he's right. It probably wouldn't have
[8:45] been saved if it was on PlayStation
[8:47] either if this budget is correct, but it
[8:48] would have stood a much better chance
[8:50] overall. Now, this article from The
[8:52] Gamer does make a mention that the $400
[8:55] million budget claim needs to be taken
[8:56] with a grain of salt cuz it is not
[8:58] confirmed, and it might not be that
[9:02] high. It goes on to mention that The
[9:03] Coalition, who's developing this game,
[9:05] is Xbox's leading Unreal Engine 5 expert
[9:09] team and has spent years building tools
[9:11] and training other studios. So, a
[9:12] portion of that budget may include the
[9:14] long-term investment into Unreal Engine
[9:16] 5 from Coalition. So, potentially it's
[9:20] closer to 250 or 300 million, which is
[9:22] still extremely high. And the article
[9:25] does mention that as well. It's it's a
[9:28] very uphill battle for Gears of War Eday
[9:32] to be like financially successful, even
[9:35] if the game is good. the the odds are
[9:38] already stacked against it, which is not
[9:40] where you want to be when you're trying
[9:42] to take the [ __ ] paddles to the chest
[9:45] of a dead franchise like Gears. Anyway,
[9:47] I just found that very disappointing.
[9:49] These type of budgets are not
[9:51] sustainable, and they never end up
[9:53] working out. It's It's just the way that
[9:56] it is. I can only hope that Gears War
[9:58] Eday blows everyone away, is actually a
[10:02] great game, and they don't once again
[10:04] just shut it in the freezer after a
[10:07] flop. But we'll see. Uh we we will
[10:10] certainly see. Anyway, that's really
[10:12] about it. Yeah.