Despite underwhelming critics, Days Gone 2 seemingly sold quite well. Sony has never divulged specific sale figures for the PS4 exclusive, which suggests it wasn’t a massive hit, but it’s believed it sold several million copies. That said, PlayStation isn’t interested in a sequel. The developer, Bend Studio, was though. In fact, it pitched a sequel to PlayStation, which it rejected. According to Days Gone Director, Jeff Ross, who is no longer with the studio, getting a sequel greenlit was always going to be an uphill battle, however, the real nail in the coffin was when PlayStation boss Shawn Layden left PlayStation in 2019 to be replaced by Jim Ryan. According to Ross, Layden championed the original game, so if a sequel was going to be made, Layden would likely be key to making it happen.
“It was very obvious that we shouldn’t be talking about Days Gone while we were working on the pitch and generating it. It was clear that it was a non-starter,” said Ross. “And there was nothing in the pitch that made the local manager and his boss feel good about it. That’s probably a failure of the creative group, but it was just an uphill battle the whole time.”
As noted, Ross is gone and right now it’s unclear what Bend Studio is working on. Days Gone was its first IP since Syphon Filter. Before it, it worked on series from other PlayStation teams, and it’s a safe bet that it won’t be getting another stab at a new IP with its next project.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ to talk all things gaming. Would you have been interested in a sequel to Days Gone? Meanwhile, for more coverage on everything PlayStation, click here.
H/T, David Jaffe.
