Not Again

[00:00] Why? Why? It's just h ah

[00:05] it's happening again. a game that I've

[00:10] really been sitting here fingers crossed

[00:12] with a rabbit's foot shoved in my ass

[00:14] that you know fourleaf clover making

[00:16] wishes on shooting stars hoping and

[00:19] praying that is going to actually be

[00:21] good and revitalized one of the

[00:23] revitalize one of the most important

[00:25] franchises in my life has now just had a

[00:28] piece of information drop like a bomb

[00:31] here and has just it's made me sick to

[00:33] my stomach it's it's oh it's Oh. Oh,

[00:38] fart. No poop, bro. Gears of War Eday

[00:41] reportedly costs a staggering 400

[00:44] million to develop. 400 million clams

[00:48] banished to the Shadow Realm for the

[00:50] upcoming Gears of War game. Now, the

[00:52] source of this information comes from

[00:54] Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who

[00:56] stated, "Gears of War Eday's budget is

[00:58] insane. I've heard upwards of 400

[01:00] million." So, maybe this is a game of

[01:02] telephone, and it's completely

[01:03] incorrect. It's not actually that much.

[01:05] You know, this isn't like concrete

[01:07] definitive proof that it is north of 400

[01:10] million or around 400 million dloons or

[01:12] anything like that because I mean we

[01:15] don't know for sure like we don't have

[01:17] access to the balance sheet. If we did

[01:18] maybe they have a hundred million put

[01:20] into Neidos or something for the team to

[01:22] enjoy at their desks. Like who's who

[01:23] really [ __ ] knows? But from what I

[01:26] know Tom Henderson has a pretty solid

[01:29] reputation for this kind of reporting.

[01:31] So there is a chance that that is

[01:32] correct. And if it is, there's a nice

[01:35] comparison this article gives about

[01:37] Marvel Spider-Man 2, which had a budget

[01:39] of 300 million, which means it needed

[01:41] 7.2 million copies at full price to just

[01:44] break even. And for comparison, Gears of

[01:47] War 2, the bestselling entry, sold 6.75

[01:52] million. And I actually went to the

[01:54] Gears of War 2 midnight release. That

[01:56] was a huge moment. Gears of War at that

[02:00] time was a cultural phenomenon. people

[02:03] even outside of the gaming space were

[02:04] talking about Gears War. It was always

[02:06] Gears of War and Halo and then

[02:08] eventually with Call of Duty 4, Call of

[02:10] Duty 4 coming into the fold. But the

[02:12] point is at its heyday of relevancy and

[02:16] you know being a part of the mainstream

[02:18] gaming consciousness, it sold 6.75

[02:21] million which would not recoup its

[02:23] budget. And that's at full price. it

[02:26] wouldn't recoup its budget with eBay

[02:29] going to Game Pass.

[02:32] That's that's not that's not going to be

[02:34] full price. Like, and I also don't see

[02:37] it like eclipsing these numbers of Gears

[02:39] War II. People aren't like salivating

[02:41] and, you know, you know, scratching at

[02:43] themselves ferociously waiting for a new

[02:45] Gears entry. Most people forgot it ever

[02:48] existed. Most people don't care. So, it

[02:50] just seems like it's already curtains.

[02:52] If this budget is accurate,

[02:55] this is just it's unacceptable. Why are

[02:58] these games budgets so incredibly

[03:01] bloated? I I refuse to believe it. Like

[03:04] a like a growth spurt in my 30s. I shant

[03:08] in such heresy. Why is it almost half a

[03:12] billion dollars? There's This has never

[03:14] been a good thing. Like this has

[03:15] literally never been a good thing. Halo

[03:17] Infinite budget got up like half a

[03:18] billion dollars or whatever and and it's

[03:20] like look what happened there, right?

[03:22] This has never been a good thing.

[03:23] Concord, for example, Lord have mercy on

[03:26] us. Forgive us for our sins. This has

[03:29] always just been a recipe for disaster.

[03:31] This is just it feels doomed to fail no

[03:33] matter what. Even if it comes out and

[03:35] it's a ballistic turbo banger, it's not

[03:37] going to make that back. Like it's like

[03:41] I don't see a world where it possibly

[03:42] could when it's an Xbox exclusive. it's

[03:45] going to be on Game Pass. Like, how does

[03:47] it even have a chance at recouping that?

[03:50] So, it's once again just going to bury

[03:52] the Gears franchise even deeper into the

[03:55] dirt where it's already like a forgotten

[03:58] relic of the past that people don't even

[04:00] think about anymore. Like, it's just oh,

[04:03] it's painful. Why is it so much? It's

[04:08] just the only game that has a budget

[04:12] like this. Well, more than this that

[04:14] probably will be able to make it back

[04:17] and then some with some gravy on top is

[04:20] Grand Theft Auto 6. But Gears of War

[04:22] Eday is not Grand Theft Auto 6. Gears of

[04:25] War Eday has about as much a chance at

[04:28] competing with the success of GTA 6 as

[04:30] [ __ ] the Killer Bean game does. And

[04:32] Killer Bean was developed by one man in

[04:35] a cave with a box of scraps like Tony

[04:37] Stark. And it's very fun game by the

[04:39] way. It's got a lot of problems, but I

[04:41] have been enjoying it. Point is, there

[04:43] is no world where Gears of War Eday

[04:46] should have a budget like this. It just

[04:48] feels completely [ __ ] from the

[04:50] start, and it hasn't even begun really.

[04:52] And the thing is, I actually was

[04:54] pleasantly surprised by the trailer and

[04:56] the gameplay they showed. Like, yeah,

[04:58] Marcus Phoenix looks a little odd in

[05:00] civilian clothing. It's weird seeing him

[05:03] not oiled up, bulked up, [ __ ]

[05:06] creatine, testosterone, and oxytocin

[05:10] [ __ ] flowing from every pore in his

[05:11] body.

[05:12] >> But the gameplay looks fun. It looks

[05:15] solid. It feels like a return to form in

[05:16] terms of grittiness like the original

[05:18] had captured. So yeah, like aside from

[05:21] people pointing out that, you know,

[05:22] Marcus looks like he's on Osimpic, I

[05:25] think most people are pleasantly

[05:26] surprised to see gears look like this.

[05:29] One of the big problems I have about

[05:31] Modern Gears games is how weightless it

[05:33] feels and how there's no punch to it

[05:35] anymore. What they showed throughout all

[05:37] the gameplay in this demonstration as

[05:40] well as like the further stuff they

[05:41] showed makes me feel like it's back to

[05:43] that really chunky feel. Whereas like

[05:46] the more modern Gears games felt more

[05:48] cartoonish where I couldn't even tell

[05:49] when I killed something cuz they just

[05:51] instantly blow up into like this balloon

[05:53] of meat. here. It just it it to me it is

[05:57] feeling like the original did. But it's

[06:00] also very possible that I'm just really

[06:01] nostalgic now and I just desperately

[06:03] want a good Gears game cuz Gears has

[06:06] been in the gutter for so so long and

[06:09] the last one that came out was

[06:12] not good. I really want the game to be

[06:15] good and from what I've seen so far, it

[06:17] at least doesn't look bad. So, we're

[06:20] going in the right direction compared to

[06:21] the previous Gears games at least. But

[06:23] with this budget, it feels like even if

[06:25] it's amazing, it won't matter because I

[06:28] don't see a world where it could

[06:30] possibly

[06:32] make money or be like a justifiable

[06:35] investment with that figure. Now, again,

[06:38] it's not like confirmed that that's

[06:40] accurate or anything. And as pointed out

[06:43] by Henderson as well, let's be honest,

[06:45] it probably wasn't going to make money

[06:47] even if it was on PlayStation. But it's

[06:49] definitely not going like who's buying

[06:51] an Xbox and Game Pass for Gears. No one

[06:53] in my opinion and there's no Xboxes to

[06:55] buy anywhere because they can't make

[06:57] anymore.

[06:59] I I mean it's hard to like strongly

[07:02] disagree there. Even if it was going to

[07:04] PlayStation like originally it was about

[07:07] you know we had this brief golden moment

[07:10] where it was looking like exclusivity

[07:12] was going to be a thing of the past

[07:14] where you can play the games that you

[07:15] want to play on your preferred console

[07:18] or on PC. Like exclusivity was starting

[07:20] to dwindle a little bit but now it's

[07:21] back in full swing. So now this isn't

[07:24] going to be hitting PlayStation, which

[07:25] means it's cutting off another entire

[07:28] market market that it's going like I

[07:30] think it's desperately going to need to

[07:33] grasp onto those honkers and not let go.

[07:36] Like please think of Gears. Look at

[07:39] Gears. Here's an option, a new a new

[07:40] game. Check it out. But now that it's

[07:42] exclusive to Xbox and Xbox is already

[07:46] far and away the least popular console

[07:49] out there. It's like Ouya in 2026. Like

[07:53] people are not flocking to Xbox. It has

[07:55] been in a bad spot. Something I've

[07:57] talked about a lot. It's sad, but that's

[07:59] just the reality of it. Phil Spencer

[08:01] also wasn't shy about mentioning that

[08:03] every opportunity he got about how they

[08:05] lost the console wars. I do think under

[08:07] Asha now they're at least trying to

[08:09] steer the ship in a better direction and

[08:11] fix certain things, but it's still not

[08:14] saved. And I don't think that Xbox is in

[08:16] a strong enough place where somehow it's

[08:19] going to make Gears successful and every

[08:22] single even if every single person on

[08:24] the planet that owned an Xbox also

[08:26] bought Gears of War Eday at full price,

[08:28] it probably still wouldn't make back

[08:30] that budget. I don't know if there's

[08:31] enough people on Earth with an Xbox to

[08:32] do so. Like it's just it feels so

[08:37] outrageous. Like it already feels like

[08:39] it's defeated with a budget like that

[08:41] before it even releases. And I think

[08:44] he's right. It probably wouldn't have

[08:45] been saved if it was on PlayStation

[08:47] either if this budget is correct, but it

[08:48] would have stood a much better chance

[08:50] overall. Now, this article from The

[08:52] Gamer does make a mention that the $400

[08:55] million budget claim needs to be taken

[08:56] with a grain of salt cuz it is not

[08:58] confirmed, and it might not be that

[09:02] high. It goes on to mention that The

[09:03] Coalition, who's developing this game,

[09:05] is Xbox's leading Unreal Engine 5 expert

[09:09] team and has spent years building tools

[09:11] and training other studios. So, a

[09:12] portion of that budget may include the

[09:14] long-term investment into Unreal Engine

[09:16] 5 from Coalition. So, potentially it's

[09:20] closer to 250 or 300 million, which is

[09:22] still extremely high. And the article

[09:25] does mention that as well. It's it's a

[09:28] very uphill battle for Gears of War Eday

[09:32] to be like financially successful, even

[09:35] if the game is good. the the odds are

[09:38] already stacked against it, which is not

[09:40] where you want to be when you're trying

[09:42] to take the [ __ ] paddles to the chest

[09:45] of a dead franchise like Gears. Anyway,

[09:47] I just found that very disappointing.

[09:49] These type of budgets are not

[09:51] sustainable, and they never end up

[09:53] working out. It's It's just the way that

[09:56] it is. I can only hope that Gears War

[09:58] 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.