As former narrative director of The Coalition, Armand Troisi, said, the studio deliberately avoided Emergence Day in Gears of War for many years, considering it one of the main elements of the canon.
Seven years after the release of Gears 5, The Coalition is now preparing to send players back in time – to the very beginning of the war with the Locust. The events of E-Day will unfold during Emergence Day, when the Locust first rose from underground and launched a full-scale attack on humanity.
Interestingly, The Coalition could have addressed this story much earlier. According to Troisi, after the series transitioned from Epic Games, the team created a huge database with all the lore details to determine which events were canon and which required changes or retcons.
At the same time, the developers deliberately decided not to touch some elements of the story. Emergence Day turned out to be one of these "untouchable" events.
I remember early on we literally put a bubble around E-Day and said: nothing happens here.
The team did not want to release books or other materials that could reveal in detail what happened on that day. E-Day remained a kind of closed box, which the developers considered one of the most valuable elements of the Gears of War story.
According to Troisi, this decision was correct. If The Coalition had tackled E-Day immediately after acquiring the series, the developers could have easily spoiled one of the most famous episodes of the universe. Therefore, the studio preferred to first form its own vision of Gears of War and only years later return to its origins.
At the same time, E-Day has huge artistic potential. Players will see the world before the catastrophe and will be able to get to know the characters during a period when their lives had not yet been destroyed by war. It is the contrast between the familiar beauty of Sera and the subsequent destruction that should become one of the important features of the game.