Gears of War: E-Day spent part of its first full weekend knocked over by a distributed denial-of-service attack, The Coalition says. Players reported failed logins, dropped matches and other disconnects on Sunday, Oct 11, and at 6:21 p.m. PT the studio's Gears Community account confirmed the cause: "These issues were due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting our online services."
A DDoS attack floods a game's servers with junk traffic until real players can't get through. It doesn't mean anyone broke in, and neither The Coalition nor Microsoft has suggested that accounts or personal data were affected. The studio said its teams were "continuing to monitor and mitigate this activity."
Xbox Support followed up at 6:35 p.m. PT saying it was investigating, and at 10:40 p.m. PT it posted that "service for Gears of War: E-Day is back to normal." Neither account has said who was behind the attack or why.
| Time (PT) | What happened |
|---|---|
| Sun, Oct 11, during the day | Players report login failures and disconnects |
| Sun, Oct 11, 6:21 p.m. | The Coalition confirms a DDoS attack on its online services |
| Sun, Oct 11, 6:35 p.m. | Xbox Support says it's investigating |
| Sun, Oct 11, 10:40 p.m. | Xbox Support says service is back to normal |
| Sun, Oct 11, 11:21 p.m. | Official status page last updated |
| Mon, Oct 12, 9:45 a.m. | Our check: all five services listed as healthy |
What's working now
We checked the game's official status page on Oct 12, 2026, at 9:45 a.m. PT. All five services it tracks, login, matchmaking, the store, post-match and progression, were marked healthy, and the page was last updated at 11:21 p.m. PT on Sunday. The page lists both the Xbox and Steam networks.
The outage hit anything that runs through those services, which for most people means Versus, Horde Siege and online campaign co-op. Xbox Wire notes those modes need a Game Pass subscription that includes online multiplayer. If your progress looked wrong after you got back in, you're not alone: PC Guide spotted at least one player reporting that a couple of collectibles didn't register once servers returned. The Coalition hasn't addressed that, or said anything about compensation, as of our check.
A rough moment for a new launch
The timing isn't great. E-Day opened in early access on Oct 1 for Premium Edition buyers and Game Pass members with the Premium Upgrade, then launched on Oct 6 for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC and Steam, where it sells for $69.99. It's also included with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Kotaku points to estimates that it sold around 230,000 copies in its first week, with around 1.7 million people playing through Game Pass, so a weekend of failed logins is the last thing the game needed.
If it happens again, the status page is the quickest place to check whether the problem is on your end. The Coalition says it will post updates on its Gears Community account if anything significant changes.