Gears of War: E-Day Disrupted by DDoS Attack, Developers Announce

Developer The Coalition has announced that Gears of War: E-Day experienced a DDoS attack over the weekend. In a post on the Gears Community X account late Sunday, the studio clarified that this was the reason players faced difficulties logging in and staying connected to the newly launched Microsoft title.

“Earlier today,” the post states, “some players experienced intermittent disconnects, login issues, or other service disruptions in Gears of War: E-Day. These issues were due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting our online services.”

Our teams are continuing to monitor and…

— Gears Community (@Community_Gears) October 12, 2026

DDoS attacks are a basic yet aggressive method of disrupting services by overwhelming servers with excessive requests, making it hard for legitimate users to gain access. Fortunately, these attacks can often be blocked or mitigated once identified, especially with protective measures in place. It appears The Coalition managed to address the situation within a few hours, concluding their post with, “Our teams are continuing to monitor and mitigate this activity. We’ll provide updates if there are any significant changes. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

This incident comes at a challenging time for the game, one of Microsoft’s major releases of 2026, especially considering earlier reports indicated that E-Day wasn’t meeting sales expectations. Despite receiving positive reviews, it reportedly sold fewer than 250,000 copies in its first week, with only 62,000 on Xbox. However, these figures are somewhat offset by an estimated 1.7 million players accessing the game through Game Pass.

As for the reasons behind the attack, there are several possibilities. Microsoft is facing significant backlash for various reasons, including substantial job cuts in 2026 that could impact The Coalition, the company’s ongoing support of Israel amid the Gaza conflict, and the criticism from some who label the latest Gears installment as “woke.”