Three hundred dollars is a number that starts an argument. The Gears of War: E-Day Collector’s Edition costs $299.99, and the reaction split the community neatly down the middle the moment it went up. What is worth saying before the argument starts again: this is not a box of random plastic with a logo stamped on it. Almost every item in it is a direct reference to one specific dead man.
The statue
The centrepiece is a 15-inch diorama of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, and The Coalition chose it deliberately over the usual single-hero pose. The scene is a collapsing structure: Marcus is grabbing hold of Dom as he falls, while Dom lands a headshot on a Feral Wretch crawling out of an E-hole below.
Gears veterans will recognise it immediately. It is a riff on a moment from the 2024 announce trailer with the roles reversed, a swap made so Marcus could be shown holding the Prototype Chainsaw Lancer, the weapon whose origin story is E-Day itself.
Two details are worth the close look: a blood-spattered Crimson Omen carved into the back of the piece, and a battery-powered red light inside the E-hole that throws a glow up through the scene. That is what the three AAA batteries in the fine print are for, and they are not included, which is a genuinely funny thing to read on a $300 box.
Carlos Santiago’s tags
The rest of the collection orbits Dom’s brother, whom The Coalition describes as the thematic ghost running through the campaign.
- The SteelBook, illustrated by longtime collaborator Luke Preece, has Marcus on one side and Dom on the other, both holding Carlos’s COG tags.
- Inside the box, those same tags appear as a 1:1 metal replica in zinc alloy and brass, engraved with Carlos’s name and the “ES” marking for the Embry Star, the commendation awarded after his death at Aspho Fields.
- They live in a display drawer built into the base of the statue, inscribed with a line from the COG oath: “I shall hold my place in the machine.”A replica in-game photograph shows Dom, Carlos and Marcus together in better days, the same photo that appears in the game.
- A premium art print of the Feral Wretch, the first Locust creature to surface on Emergence Day, comes in a portfolio case, alongside a handwritten-style thank-you note from the studio.
Everything ships in collector’s display packaging the studio openly hopes you will put on a shelf rather than in a loft.
What is actually in the box
- 15-inch collectible diorama statue of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago (3 AAA batteries, not included)
- 1:1 scale replica of Carlos Santiago’s COG tags in metal zinc alloy and brass
- In-game photo, lithograph and thank-you note from The Coalition
- Luke Preece custom SteelBook case
- Collector’s display packaging with sliding tag drawer
- The base game, a physical disc for Xbox Series X buyers, a digital code for Steam buyers
- The full Premium Edition digital upgrade: up to five days early access from October 1, the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, 1,000 Iron, and five Seasonal Customization Packs starting with Emergence at launch
Buying it, if you still can
Pre-orders opened on the Xbox Game Studios Shop after the June showcase at $299.99, with a one-per-customer limit and an October 2026 ship window. At the time of writing the US listing is out of stock with a back-in-stock notification form in its place. EU, UK, Swiss and Norwegian buyers go through the separate European store; Australia and New Zealand through JB Hi-Fi and EB Games. The US shop only ships to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, and the CE has to be ordered on its own, nothing else can share the basket.
One thing UK buyers flagged early: the store charges at checkout rather than at dispatch, and shipping pushed the real cost close to £290.
Is it worth it?
Honestly, that depends on whether you read the statue as a $300 object or as the wrapper on a $70 game with a $30 digital pack. The design work is unusually thoughtful for the category: the tags, the oath inscription, the reversed trailer pose are the kind of details that only land if someone on the team actually cares, and the Premium upgrade inside recovers a meaningful chunk of the price.
But it is still $299.99 for a light-up diorama, the sort of number that used to buy a console, and the CE sat in stock for weeks after the Halo: Campaign Evolved edition sold out at $250. If it is now unavailable and you missed it, the honest advice is to wait for a restock rather than chase the secondary market: E-Day is an Xbox console exclusive, which caps the audience, and the flip case here is far weaker than the hype suggests.
Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, with Premium and Collector’s Edition early access from October 1.
