Kotaku's Ethan Gach reported that one source familiar with "Xbox's business" put E-Day's cost at more than $500 million, excluding marketing. The Game Business's Chris Dring said he had heard the same. Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson had earlier said the budget exceeded $400 million.

Corden, who says he spoke with multiple sources, claims the half-billion was paid to The Coalition over several years, and that the money covers more than E-Day itself. According to GameSpot's summary of his report, the studio emerged from the pandemic as a do-everything developer. It assisted on several Xbox games and on the technology behind them, including work with Epic Games on the Matrix Awakens and Alpha Point Unreal Engine 5 tech demos.

None of this is confirmed. The $500 million figure rests on Gach's single unnamed source, with Dring saying he heard the same, and Corden's account of the multi-year payments rests on his own sources. The supplied material does not include an official figure from Microsoft or The Coalition.