Gears of War Marks 20 Years With a Free RAAM Unlock and Season 2 in December

Twenty years to the day after the original Gears of War launched on Xbox 360, The Coalition is celebrating with a two-week in-game event in Gears of War: E-Day and confirmation that the game's next major content drop, Season 2 "Legacy," arrives December 1. The studio detailed both on Xbox Wire on November 6, a day ahead of the franchise's November 7 anniversary.

A Free RAAM Skin for Every E-Day Player

The centerpiece of the celebration is a no-strings-attached gift: every player who logs into Gears of War: E-Day during the anniversary window unlocks RAAM as a playable multiplayer character, free of charge. RAAM, the Locust leader from the original trilogy, has never been a standard unlock in E-Day's prequel-era roster, making the giveaway one of the few ways to field him outside a cosmetic bundle.

Studio Brand Director Nicole Fawcette framed the giveaway as part of a broader effort to honor the series' history rather than just mark a calendar date. "For us at The Coalition, these are the stories that matter most," Fawcette wrote, adding that stewarding the franchise through its second decade is "an incredible privilege."

Two Limited-Time Modes Change the Rules

Alongside the free character, The Coalition is running a pair of limited-time variants through the anniversary event. In Versus, a new Guardian mode strips squads down to a single surviving leader per round, turning every match into a hunt for one target. In Horde Siege, a "For the Queen" variant disables the supply cache entirely, forcing four-player squads to survive world-boss waves using only the loadout they started with.

Both modes lean on systems already built into E-Day: Horde Siege's four player classes (Assault, Marksman, Medic and Breacher) and Versus' 4v4 Ranked and Social playlists. Running the anniversary variants through the existing mode structure means the event needs no separate download, only a content update that is already live.

Season 2, "Legacy," Arrives December 1

The anniversary event is also the platform for The Coalition's next seasonal roadmap reveal. Season 2 is titled "Legacy," and Fawcette confirmed it launches December 1 with a lineup built almost entirely from the franchise's back catalog: returning maps, modes and multiplayer skins drawn from two decades of Gears games.

“For us at The Coalition, these are the stories that matter most.”Nicole Fawcette, Studio Brand Director at The Coalition

The season's signature cosmetic is a Solemn Memories skin for Dom Santiago, modeled on the suit he wears in one of the series' most referenced images, a photograph with his wife Maria from Gears of War 2. Fawcette did not detail the rest of Legacy's map and mode list beyond calling the lineup "fan-favorite," leaving the full patch notes for closer to the December 1 launch.

Where the Anniversary Fits Into E-Day's Prequel Story

Gears of War: E-Day is set fourteen years before the 2006 original, following a young Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago through the first days of the Locust invasion. The Coalition built the game in Unreal Engine 5, targeting up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, and both Horde Siege and Versus support the same four-class and 4v4 structures the studio is now using to host the anniversary variants.

Two editions remain available on the Xbox Store: the standard Gears of War: E-Day at $69.99, with Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass access included for subscribers, and the Premium Edition at $99.99, which bundles the base game with the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, 1,000 Iron and five seasonal customization packs beginning with the Emergence Pack. Online multiplayer, including the anniversary modes, requires a Game Pass tier that covers online play.

The Gears of War franchise has run continuously since that 2006 debut, and The Coalition's framing of this week's event, a free unlock built around nostalgia rather than a paid cosmetic push, suggests Season 2 is aimed squarely at lapsed players who haven't logged in since launch.