Back in 2019, PlayStation gamers were eagerly awaiting the release of Days Gone, an open world game set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies.
Days Gone had been a long time in the making and many people were looking forward to it, actually it was one of the top previewed games at the 2018 Tokyo Game Show. The game turned out to be a somewhat disappointing PS4 exclusive, though. Its generic open world gameplay, weak story and uncharismatic characters meant it definitely wasn’t in the league of Sony’s other big zombie exclusive The Last of Us (but then how could it?).
Despite this, there were rumors in late 2019 that the people behind the game (Sony’s Bend Studio) were at work on a sequel, rumors that turned out to be not true as Sony never did greenlight a sequel to its third-person action game, something which the game’s co-director Jeff Ross touched on in a tweet recently (via Eurogamer).
Ross points out that Days Gone had already surpassed the 8 million copies sold mark when he left Sony, and that the PC version (which hit Steam last year) had sold another million, yet the game is considered a “disappointment” by Bend Studio’s management…
This came in response to news that Ghost of Tsushima, another PlayStation exclusive, had sold more than 8 million copies.
Ross went on to say in another tweet that it was “weird” that Days Gone did not get a sequel despite its sales.
Actually, Days Gone’s co-director has compared his game’s sales to that of Ghost of Tsushima, stating in another tweet that Days Gone “definitely didn’t generate God of War numbers, but neither did Ghost…”.
So why did Days Gone, then, not get a sequel?
It seems the game’s unimpressive review scores (its Metacritic aggregate stands at a not so great 71) and its long development cycle (reportedly between 6 and 7 years) had to do with Sony deciding not to back Days Gone 2.
There’s also the fact that Days Gone’s sales numbers might not be as high as the game’s co-director Jeff Ross says – not nearly as high as 8 million copies, as has been reported in outlets like Den of Geek.
Despite this, Ross has said his team at Bend Studio were looking to make a “kick-ass sequel”. He gave the example of a game like Killzone which did not get great review scores, but got a superior sequel which scored 91 on Metacritic.
It’s unlikely, though, that Days Gone will ever get a sequel now, surely a disappointment for fans of the original game. Sony Bend are currently at work on an unannounced open-world game, but this won’t have anything to do story wise with Days Gone. Those looking to sate their appetite for another post-apocalyptic zombie game, though, at least have The Last of Us’ remake to look forward to, which should be arriving in the near future.