(UTV | COLOMBO) -Last week came a report over at Bloomberg that revealed that Bend Studios had pitched a sequel to their PlayStation-exclusive post-apocalyptic biker game “Days Gone”.
The pitch was reportedly not successful according to that initial report which suggested the blame was on sluggish sales and soft critical response to the original. Now “Days Gone” director James Ross, speaking with “God of War” creator David Jaffe on a live stream, has acknowledged some of that report.
Ross, who left Bend due to personal reasons and is now at NetherRealm, could not confirm details due to an NDA. When asked by Jaffe what Sony’s reasoning could have been for canning the sequel though, Ross says:
“I don’t think it’s publicly confirmed what the status of [Days Gone 2] is. I don’t want to be the guy who’s the official source for whatever that is… Days Gone has sold more copies than every game the studio has ever made combined. So it’s successful in that way, and in the community and player response. But the critics… yeah, that was Normandy Beach.”
Ross then discussed his plans for the sequel, which would have added something fans desperately desired in the original game:
“We wanted co-op from the beginning [in Days Gone 1], but obviously you have to make concessions for what you’re not going to be able to do… But then take this world that you’ve built, and all these assets and systems, and repurpose them for some sort of similarly themed multiplayer version of this universe. So [it] would be with guys like Deacon trying to survive, building up a clubhouse or a crew. I think it would be fun to be in that world cooperatively and see what horde battles could be like.”
That Bloomberg report also indicates the cancellation was a part of Sony’s agenda to focus on larger, blockbuster games which will come at the expense of ‘niche’ teams in its first-party organization who would become support studios for the larger ones. Ross straight up dismisses those suggestions are happening with Bend:
“Sony’s got to run a responsible business. So it’s OK for them to make decisions based on the anticipated return of investment, because that’s the money they need to fund the next game… For Sony, every era is about survival. They’ve never been cash-rich, so they’ve got to be smart. I think fans should understand that before they really go off.
We always assume that places like EA and Activision are letting spreadsheets drive the decisions and that’s never been the case at Sony in my experience. We’re all smart and we understand that we have to create something commercial, but they’re not jamming that down our throat.
Games are expensive, movies are expensive… in order to make more, the initial ones need to make money. I do think that the more you overthink something, the more you’re destined to doom it and that’s why I like the loose format at Sony.”
“Days Gone” may find new life soon though. On the PlayStation 5 it was one of the first big late PS4 titles to be patched to operate on the new hardware. The game is also slated to come to PC sometime before the end of June.