The Gears of War E-Day Open Beta is getting several fixes and improvements ahead of its second weekend. The update includes changes to the Prototype Lancer, improved hit detection in Horde Siege, stronger anti-cheat protection, and stability improvements across all platforms.
The Coalition has also addressed connection timeouts, matchmaking, account linking, and third-party controller recognition on Steam. Xbox Series S players can also expect further improvements aimed at reducing hitching during the second beta weekend.
PC Requirements and Driver Updates
- An SSD is required for the Gears of War E-Day Open Beta on PC.
- HDDs are not supported and may cause severe loading issues, missing assets, stuttering, and crashes.
- Players should ensure their NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel graphics drivers are updated.
- Recommended drivers include:
- AMD: 26.7.1
- NVIDIA: 610.74 or newer
- Intel: 101.8864
Balance Changes
- Prototype Lancer base damage has been increased.
- Prototype Lancer perfect reload damage has been reduced.
Gameplay Improvements
- Hit detection delays experienced by players in Horde Siege have been improved.
- Aim Assist clarification will be added to the Settings menu at launch.
- Aim Assist only affects Campaign and Horde Siege game modes.
- Versus gameplay will not be affected.
Anti-Cheat Improvements
- Anti-cheat protection has been improved.
- Enforcement action has been taken against verified cheaters.
Connection and Network Fixes
- Mitigations have been implemented for the Drone-Snub error code.
- The required port has been updated from UDP 443 to UDP 3074.
- Players experiencing the Drone-Snub error should ensure the required ports are open on their network.
- Mitigations have been implemented to address connection timeout errors.
Matchmaking Improvements
- Further matchmaking improvements have been made for Versus modes.
- Improvements apply to both Social and Ranked matchmaking.
Platform Fixes
- Improved an issue where some third-party controllers were not recognised when launching the game on Steam.
- Improved an issue preventing some players from linking their Microsoft accounts.
- Further improvements have been made to reduce hitching on Xbox Series S.
- Stability has been improved across all platforms.
- The frequency of crashes has been reduced across all platforms.
Gears of War E-Day is scheduled to release on October 6, 2026, for Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The game is developed by The Coalition and People Can Fly and published by Xbox Game Studios.
Are you excited for these changes ahead of the second beta weekend? Let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments!
