Gears of War: E-Day may be one of the most expensive games ever made, making Microsoft’s decision to cancel an almost-complete PS5 version of the game even more bemusing.

Kotaku started the speculation earlier today when it cited sources who claim the third-person shooter cost an eye-watering $500 million to create.

That’s significantly more than the $300 million figures attached to titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine, both of which include hefty Disney licensing fees.

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While the figure looks flabbergasting on the surface, both the Game Business’ Chris Dring and Windows Central’s Jez Corden have indicated the number is accurate. According to Corden, there is some debate over how the budget was distributed, however.

Kotaku claims, given the vast sums of money involved, that Microsoft knew E-Day wouldn’t make its money back whichever platforms it shipped on, hence its surprise decision to axe the PS5 release.

It’s worth noting at this stage that we’ve had a number of game budget rumours recently, many of which have been quickly debunked. The figures attached to Physint immediately spring to mind.

It’s entirely possible this may be misinformation, then, or something only those within the very upper-echelons of Microsoft’s finance department would know.

However, as VGC’s Andy Robinson rightly points out, Xbox management’s recent trend of quickly debunking rumours on social media makes its silence in this particular situation stand out.

Predictions conducted by Alinea Analytics pegged E-Day’s sales at around 311k copies recently, with most players choosing to play via Xbox Game Pass. There are reports Microsoft will remove day one games from its subscription next year.

Assuming these figures are accurate, though, I’d agree PS5 wouldn’t have helped the latest Gears of War make back its money. Could it have helped, though? Well, it doesn’t take a sales analyst to answer that.

[source kotaku.com]