Gears of War: E-Day’s Second Beta Weekend Will Bring Fixes and a PC SSD Warning
The open test is scheduled to run from August 13 at 12pm PT through August 17 at 10am PT, with changes aimed at weapon balance, connectivity, matchmaking, and stability.
Gears of War: E-Day will enter its second open beta weekend on August 13, with a group of fixes aimed at problems reported during the first test. The open beta is scheduled to run from August 13 at 12pm PT through August 17 at 10am PT, and all players on eligible platforms will be able to join regardless of pre-purchase status.
A new Steam announcement outlines the changes, including weapon balance adjustments, improved hit detection in Horde Siege, stronger anti-cheat protection, and several connection and stability fixes.
PC players need an SSD and current drivers
An SSD is required on PC. Mechanical HDDs are not supported and may cause severe loading issues, missing assets, stuttering, and crashes.
Players should also update their graphics drivers before joining the test. The recommended versions are:
- AMD: 26.7.1
- NVIDIA: 610.74 or newer
- Intel: 101.8864
The Settings menu currently does not explain that Aim Assist only affects Campaign and Horde Siege. It will not affect Versus, and the missing clarification will be added at launch.
The first test had a range of known beta problems, including crashes, performance dips, and matchmaking delays. The second-weekend work addresses several of those areas while also covering account linking, Steam controller detection, and Xbox Series S hitching.
Gears of War: E-Day August 12 Fixes and Improvements
The fixes cover weapon damage, Horde Siege hit detection, anti-cheat enforcement, network errors, crashes, matchmaking, controller recognition, Microsoft account linking, and Xbox Series S performance.
- Prototype Lancer – Increased base damage and reduced perfect reload damage
- Hit Detection Delays – Improved hit detection delays players were experiencing in Horde Siege
- Anti-cheat protection – Improved anti-cheat protection and took enforcement action against verified cheaters
- Drone-Snub Error Code – Implemented mitigations for the drone-snub error code. As part of this change, we have updated our port requirement from UDP 443 to UDP 3074. If you continue to experience this issue, please ensure the required ports are open on your network. For more information, visit Xbox Live Network Ports
- Stability – Improved stability and reduced frequency of crashes across all platforms
- Connection Timeouts – Implemented mitigations to address connection timeout errors
- Matchmaking Improvements– Made further improvements to our Matchmaking system in Versus (Social & Ranked)
- Third-Party Controller Support – Improved an issue where some third-party controllers were not recognized upon game launch on Steam
- Account Linking – Improved issue where players were not able to link their Microsoft accounts
- Xbox Series S – Made further improvements to reduce hitching on Xbox Series S
The second open beta weekend will end on August 17 at 10am PT. Players looking for more details can find the FAQ on the Gears of War website.
Will these fixes make the second weekend smoother for you? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow along on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Gears of War: E-Day
Developed by The Coalition
Experience the brutal horror of Emergence Day through the eyes of Marcus Fenix in the origin story of one of gaming's most acclaimed sagas.
Fourteen years before Gears of War, war heroes Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago return home to face a new nightmare: the Locust Horde. These subterranean monsters, grotesque and relentless, erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself.
Built from the ground up with Unreal Engine 5, Gears of War: E-Day delivers unprecedented graphical fidelity.
- Genre Shooter, Adventure
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release October 6, 2026
- Publisher Xbox Game Studios
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Age Rating
