Some stores have already broken the street date for Gears 5.
Gears 5, the fifth installment to the Gears of War franchise, arrives for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on September 6th. Everyone else ꦇis supposed to have to wait until September 10th, but some lucky shoppers have managed to find copies early.
We know this for a fact as a few users over on the Gears of War subreddit have posted pictures of their recent acquisitions. Apparently, physical copies of Gears 5 have begun arriving at bric꧙k and mortar stores and some of them aren’t paying attention to the official release date--they’re stocking𝓀 them now.
According to Reddit user silfvy, who got their copy yesterday, one of thos🦄e stores is Walmart. Whoever is the store manager is likely to face severe repercussions as publishers really don’t like it w🎀hen a street date is violated and might complain enough to make it a headache for Walmart executives. Stores have been taken off the initial shipment list for this sort of thing, and it can mean that location losing out on the next big game.
Our lucky frie༺nd reports that the campaign🌼 is enjoyable and multiplayer is accessible if a bit lonely at the moment.
Although breaking the street date can be bad news for stores, it's not something that users really need to concern th༒emselves with. However, some aspects of an early-purchased game might not be fully active by the time you get it installed.
That doesn't seem to be the case with Gears 5. Reddit user 𝓰Hyphaee also managed to find a copy yesterday and reports that multiplayer servers are fully operational with quit🐷e a few new maps to try.
User Evancurtis9 also fo🌊und 🌸a copy and showcased the game's storefront in a separate post, for those wondering what prices might look like.
Sadly, digital copies of most games are locked out until the street date so nobody can start playing early. Only physical copies of the game are able to get a head start, and then only if a store is willi𝓀ng to ignore the release date.
That said, digital versions of Gears 5 can now be pᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre-loaded, so at least you'll be able to hit the ground running on September 6th (or 10th).