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Open Beta - Version 4 vs Version 5
Sep 27, 2026, 06:13 AM
Restored the launch Game Pass Essential requirement from the beta FAQ and reconciled the post-beta paragraph with the September stability statement
Oct 2, 2026, 08:10 AM
Added the post-beta change list published on September 30 and confirmed the multiplayer subscription wording is still on the beta FAQ
11The Gears of War: E-Day Open Beta ran over two weekends in August 2026 and has concluded. It offered a subset of launch content across Horde Siege and 4v4 Versus. Everything on this page is beta-era: several values here were explicitly temporary and do not describe the shipping game.2233Schedule and Access4455WeekendWindowWho could playWeekend 1, Early AccessAugust 6 at 12:00 PT to August 10 at 10:00 PTPlayers who pre-ordered on Xbox Series X|S or Steam, plus Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass membersWeekend 2, OpenAugust 13 at 12:00 PT to August 17 at 10:00 PTAll players on all eligible platforms, no pre-order required66Beta content was identical across both weekends. Game Pass was not required for the second weekend, though console online play still needed a subscription tier that includes online multiplayer. The official beta FAQ adds that at launch, multiplayer access will require a Game Pass Essential membership or higher, which is covered on Release and Platforms.7788Versus was not originally part of the first weekend. It was added after player feedback, announced in an August 4 update to the beta post with the line that they heard players and acted.991010Rewards11111212Beta rewards unlocked for use during the beta and then landed in the player inventory at launch.13131414RewardRequirementBlast Damage Mags Epic Character SkinReach Player Level 20Crush the Bug Rare Weapon Skin SetExtract from Horde Siege 8 times on Infantry difficulty or higherCrush the Bug BannerGet 25 headshotsCrush the Bug EmblemPerform 10 revivesCrush the Bug IconPerform 5 Prototype Lancer chainsaw executionsOpen Beta Medal and First in the Fight TitleLaunch the multiplayer beta1515Progress Carryover16161717The Beta Player Title, the Beta Medal and any beta challenge rewards carry to launch. Class progression, Player Level and other medal progress were reset and do not carry over. Progress did carry between the two beta weekends, including challenge and medal progress, rewards, class progression and Player Level. The launch progression systems are on Progression and Medals.18181919August 12 Changes20202121A change list landed between the two weekends. The balance entries are beta-era tuning and should not be read as launch statistics.22222323Prototype Lancer: base damage increased, perfect reload damage reduced.Hit detection: improved hit detection delays players were experiencing in Horde Siege.Stability: reduced crash frequency across all platforms.Connection timeouts: mitigations implemented.Matchmaking: further improvements in both Social and Ranked Versus.Networking: the port requirement changed from UDP 443 to UDP 3074 as part of the drone-snub error fix.Anti-cheat: improved protection and enforcement action against verified cheaters.Controllers: fixed some third-party controllers not being recognised on launch on Steam.Account linking: fixed an issue preventing Microsoft account linking.Xbox Series S: further work to reduce hitching.24242525After the Beta262627-The only post-beta statement from the studio so far came in the September 17, 2026 gone-gold announcement, which said the team had continued to iterate on PC stability and performance across a wide range of hardware configurations since the beta. No beta player figures, results summary or launch balance changes had been published by then.27+The first post-beta statement from the studio came in the September 17, 2026 gone-gold announcement, which said the team had continued to iterate on PC stability and performance across a wide range of hardware configurations since the beta. No beta player figures, results summary or launch balance changes had been published by then.282829+That changed on September 30, 2026, the day before early access, when the studio published a full list of the multiplayer fixes and changes made since August. It covers weapon, movement, Horde Siege and Versus tuning, around thirty bug fixes, new settings such as a field of view slider, and an explanation of the new Gnasher hipfire model, which the studio offered in response to community discussion after the beta. It is summarised on Patch Notes.30+2931Error Codes30323133CodeCause and workarounddrone-snubNetwork port issue. Addressed by the change from UDP 443 to UDP 3074; if it persisted, the required ports had to be opened on the network.quentin-ephyraAuthentication error related to Xbox Quick Resume. The workaround was to disable Quick Resume in system settings.bryce-vigilA mismatch between the system date and time settings and local time. Fixed by re-syncing the clock.gill-gutpuncherSame cause and fix as bryce-vigil.3234Beta-Era Limitations33353436Several beta restrictions were stated as temporary and explicitly absent from the final game. Frame generation was disabled and the framerate was capped at 150 frames per second. Aim assist was noted as affecting the campaign and Horde Siege only, with a missing clarification in the settings menu; that exclusion for Versus is a real design rule rather than a beta issue.35373638Other beta-era notes: an SSD was required and hard drives were unsupported, recording software older than a certain version caused crashes, some Intel Arc cards recompiled shaders on every launch, and extended Horde Siege sessions on Xbox Series S could hitch in Quality Mode with a full restart as the workaround. Driver minimums during the beta were AMD 26.7.1, Intel 101.8864 and NVIDIA 610.74 or newer, with the game refusing to launch on older NVIDIA drivers.373938-Apart from the single line on PC stability in the gone-gold announcement, nothing has been published since the beta closed on August 17 about what came out of it. As of September 27, 2026 there has been no results post, no player-numbers figure, no balance retrospective and no list of changes made in response to the two weekends. Until one appears, the beta-era values on this page stay the last published state of anything they describe, and none of them should be read as the shipping game.40+Beyond the gone-gold line on PC stability and the September 30 change list, nothing has been published about what came out of the beta. As of October 2, 2026 there has been no results post and no player-numbers figure. The beta-era values on this page remain the last published state of what they describe, and where the change list altered something, such as weapon damage or cover timing, the beta value no longer applies to the shipping game.39414042Beta Specs Are Not Launch Specs41434244Separate recommended PC specifications were published for the beta with an explicit note that they were not launch specifications. Only the launch figures are recorded on System Requirements, and the PC feature set on PC Features and Graphics Options.