Microsoft ‘Investigating’ Crashing And Missing Pre-Orders As Gears of War: Reloaded Slumps to ‘Mixed’ Rating on Steam

Microsoft has said it is “aware” of crashing issues with the newly released Gears of War: Reloaded on Steam and confirmed it is “investigating.”

Though a remaster of the original 2006 game, the shiny new version comes with improved visuals and audio, crossplay, and cross-progression, and all the DLC from the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

Despite describing the port as “faithfully remastered and optimized for PC,” however, the game is currently sitting on a ‘Mixed’ user review rating on Steam, with players “disappointed” with crashing, “low population in multiplayer,” and missing pre-order bonuses.

At the time of this article’s publication, 50% of the 633 Steam user reviews were positive. Gears of War: Reloaded launched on Valve’s platform on August 26.

Microsoft asked for patience while it looks into missing pre-order skins and matchmaking problems, and suggested the crashing seems to happen when the game is “launched through Steam and the player signs in with a Microsoft account.”

“The team is investigating crashes on Steam when launching the game and missing pre-order character skins for some users, as well as initial reports of matchmaking issues,” a statement assured players on X/Twitter.

While there’s no news on when we can expect a fix, the team did offer a workaround, stating: “Some users have resolved the crashing by navigating to C:Users[YourUsername]AppDataLocalCoalition and deleting the WarGame folder.”

“HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN DAY 1 ON A RELEASE…” asked one player on X, while another said: “I just don’t understand how this happens when you had a beta….. For a 10-year-old game….. That’s being released for the third time…”

“From playing about seven hours, I can say that the glowing review of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and its few faults still stand true with Reloaded,” we wrote in IGN’s Gears of War: Reloaded review-in-progress.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.