Days Gone director says "local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment"
Despite reportedly outselling Ghost of Tsushima.
The director of Days Gone has said "local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment", and called Sony's decision not to greenlight a sequel "weird".
Reacting to the news that Sucker Punch's PlayStation exclusive Ghost of Tsushima has now sold over 8m copies, Days Gone director Jeff Ross said that when he left Sony in late 2020, the zombie game had already sold over 8m copies - and it has since gone on to sell even more, plus over a million sales on Steam.
But despite Days Gone's sales success, Ross said: "Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment." " It's weird!" Ross added of Sony's decision not to back a sequel.
Days Gone developer Sony Bend unsuccessfully pitched the sequel in 2019. According to Bloomberg: "Although the first game had been profitable, its development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed, so a Days Gone 2 wasn't seen as a viable option."
It seems Sony took Days Gone review scores into consideration here (it currently has a 71 Metascore), as well as its six or seven-year development, even if that's not the feedback Sony Bend itself received. Eurogamer's review called Days Gone "a shallow copy of many better open-world action games".
Ross claimed Sony believed more in Death Stranding than Days Gone, and that "the grief" Sony Bend received "was about the sales, not the scores".
"Definitely didn't generate God of War numbers, but neither did Ghost... or Death Stranding," Ross added.
Ross said he was "planning on building on top of the original for a kick-ass sequel".
"Even the first Killzone got a 70 on metacritic," Ross continued, "but the sequel roared back with a 91. You gotta crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run."
Then: "Development was a long slog, but we were a small team learning how to make our first open world game. All things considered, it's amazing we finished at all."
Eurogamer has asked Sony for comment.
The upshot is it doesn't look like Days Gone 2 is happening any time soon, if at all. A team within Sony Bend is now reportedly helping Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game. A second team within Sony Bend was assigned to work on a new Uncharted game "with supervision from Naughty Dog", but this is no longer happening and Sony Bend is now working on a new game of its own.