Days Gone Director Says Bend's Project Costs Over $250M; Says PS Co-CEO Doesn't Want 2 Zombies Games

Days Gone director claims Sony has already poured in at least a $250M in Bend's project; says Days Gone sold more than Death Stranding.

[shinoff2183]

Well that sucks. Seems they want more online trash. I'd rather of had the sequel if it was single player

[MrNinosan]

What online trash games did PS Studios release last 10 years?

[Notellin]

The past has nothing to do with the future. This is such a terrible argument. Everyone knows about their current live service push.

[_SilverHawk_]

It's so tragic what happened to days gone. It is such an amazing game but bandwagoners trashed it and it underperformed in it's launch year. Days gone is the best open world zombie game released in the past five years. I was recently playing it on pc and I'm still amazed by it.

Games are very expensive to make and it seems like it's normal for a AAA game to cost over a quarter billion to make so if a quality game like days gone greatly underperforms then people shouldn't be upset when they see a lot of GAAS. I still remember a lot of bandwagoners calling days gone trash but years later it's now amazing when it's considered a failure by sony.

If a game isn't the best thing seen since hats with pockets then a lot of gamers who haven't played it automatically calls it rubbish and whoever made it should be incarcerated

[Cacabunga]

Co CEO prefers gamers to boycott.. so be it. I’ll never buy a gaas.
Just imagine buying a game you cannot replay in some years.. this shit must stop.

Days Gone did zombies in a very original way. The story was also so engaging. You actually only meet Zombie hordes later in the game. There are many more enemy groups to deal with.

[MrNinosan]

@Notelin
I am one of the few who bought Days Gone on release day and loved it completely.
However, "more online trash" is phrased like Sony has put out alot of trash online games.
We got what, 2 games? Helldivers 2 and GT7, 2 of the most sold Playstation games where both is loved by millions.

You, me and especially shinoff has no idea if Fairgames, Marathon and Concord will be trash.

Just because we (as in you and me) don't love or support online games, doesn't mean millions of other do.

And we don't know what Bend Studio is working with? We don't know if they're forced to make a online game or another amazing single player experience.

The only thing we do know is that it's not Days Gone, sadly due to poor sales the first 6 months.

[shinoff2183]

More online trash wasmt meant how insee it comes across. I should've worded it different I was meaning the focus they currently have on it.

Anything online is online trash to me. How long did naughty dog spend on that dumba last of us multiplayer, how about Concord, or even the other couple we hear about. I fk with Sony because rpgs and their 1st party single player games. Been like that for years. I hate seeing them waste time, money, and talent on trash. I understand bot every game is gonna be for me but this focus they've seem to had on multiplayer is extremely disheartening. Even at the state of play the only things I was really feeling were Astrobot and silent hill 2 and I'm content with that, not everything is for me. It's just the online focus I hate. Ms bought up 3 to 4 wrpgs developers, Sony just ignores rpgs 1st party wise.

And a days gone 2 would've been much better then whatever online sht bend is working on. I do know sometimes I get very idk emotional. I do need to work on toning that down a bit lol

[SimpleDad]

Ammm let's see... That All-stars, Foamstars, Babilon 5 wass gaas...
Concord... can wait to play that...Marathon uuuu... Last of them gaas... U
Horizon Zero dawn has a project that leaked as a Fortnite lookalike.

They bought Destiny that is a dead gaas...people love ti.

Helldivers 2 was luck.

Jimbo was all in and pushed Sony single player games 5 years behind.

Spiderman gaas was cancelled... I mean every 1st party studio was doing gaas.

Bend had to pitch a gaas game... Open world coop something

I can't remember more... Of that crap.

[tay8701]

@simpledad. Destiny 2 isn't a dead game. Its the number 5 most played game on steam. I dont play it, but alot of people do.

[MrNinosan]

@SimpleDad
You failed to mention a single PS Studios game that has been released last 10 years.
Either your reading skills are crap or you think Sony own every studio in the world.

[just_looken]

I rolled my eyes at concord not only was it just yet another cookie cutter hero shooter but that qucik look for the hero select.

Already has a free section then paid section along with a they/them she/her dei crap top right.

Nothing like a day off of work to fire up concord to read about the new characters sexual identity and or preference then a paywall do you want o buy this character shit like no i just want to shoot my gun have fun.

[-Foxtrot]

It would be a shame if it was true that Hermen never gave the franchise a chance simply because he didn't like it and they already had a "Zombie" game with TLOU.

NaughtyDog are most likely moving onto a new IP next so it would have been the perfect time to do it.

[ThinkThink]

Here's where xbox steps in and releases state of decay 3 day and date on ps5.

[shinoff2183]

I mean it's not out of the realm of possibility at this point.

[Grilla]

Days gone 2 was canceled before Herman was in charge. That happened like 4 years ago.

[vfl523]

4 years ago he was head of Playstation Studios. He would've probably had a hand in the cancelation.

[Notellin]

Man two seconds of research could have saved you from this comment. Amazing work Grilla you fit in with the uniformed N4G community who speaks before verifying anything that they say.

[Redemption-64]

Maybe encourage people to buy the game at full price and not when it's heavily discounted or go on plus. If this game had sold well when it was full priced a sequel would have been in the works. They made a single-player game that most people didn't support until they dropped the price.

[Cacabunga]

The guy’s just a moron.. he should have stayed within game development. His choices will have a terrible impact on the brand in the long run.

[tay8701]

Dude is pretty pathetic. Sounds like a guy who's girl left him for someone better. Always talking about days gone sequel that never was, even though he is no longer at bend and hasnt been for a while. I for one am not upset about the lack of a sequel. It is one of the worst 1st party games in recent memory. Completely jank, played like an xbox game. The only redeeming quality was the hordes.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Would've loved a sequel ngl

[excaliburps]

Yep. Kind of weird since it wasn't a sales flop, no?

I know we have to take what Ross says with a grain of salt since we're hearing just one side of the story, but even so, the game wasn't bad at all. Heck, it's my brother's favorite last-gen game from what I recall.

The amount of zombies on screen, imagine that with the PS5 and SSD? That would be insanely fun!

[Grilla]

Most copies were sold on sale. Not enough ppl bought it at full price. I paid 20$ for it 6 -7 months after release.

[Notellin]

Yeah we should never believe the creators side until we hear the corporate/big business side as history has shown we should always believe billion dollar corporations.

What a bootlicker statement.

[rippermcrip]

It was a flop.

[derek]

@Notellin, of course you'll believe an embittered ex-employee with an axe to grind because it's evil Sony he's complaining about. You guys act like days gone was this huge success and somehow Sony hates easy money a sequel would have generated. The game was mid and so was the response to it. They're still supporting the developer who is making a new ip that could be great.

[shinoff2183]

Days gone was fantastic. I bought day one but didn't get around to it for months. When I finally did I was pissed at myself for waiting so long lol

[P_Bomb]

Well I don’t want 10 live service games, but they have no problem doing that lol. Ugh.

[CrimsonWing69]

Oh great so we only get what the big wigs want… y’know, the people that really have their fingers on the pulse of what their consumers want. Faaaaantastic!

[rippermcrip]

Well consider they know the sales... they do know what the consumer wants.

It sold shit.

[-Foxtrot]

But if it’s true what this guy says it sold better than Death Stranding

Yet that got a sequel and Kojima aside out of them both DS didn’t really NEED a sequel compared to Days Gone which ended on such a cliff hanger twist.

[smolinsk]

Days gone was ok. Not great. So I understand Sony wanted something else.
I like that Sony is trying something new with these Online games.

[Notellin]

What an atrocious opinion, I'm devastated you're representing the gaming community.

[smolinsk]

I can really see you are the spokesperson for the gaming community with these likes 😉

[shinoff2183]

New? I don't play online but I've seen hundreds of comments calling Concord a hero shooter, yet another hero shooter is what their saying. Doesnt sound new.

[fsfsxii]

The game was straight ass, give us something original or get left behind. I’m all for the direction sony is going in, adapt or perish

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Another hero shooter is totally original.

[maelstromb]

I'd hate to live by your standards... it must be impossible to enjoy most games for you.

[fsfsxii]

I just enjoy whats appealing to me and move on with my life instwad of whining about it like some of you.

[SimpleDad]

The direction Sony is going is absolute ass.
Go and see people response to State of play.

[fsfsxii]

I dont care about the opinions of gamers about a hobby they dedicate their whole lives to.

[ocelot07]

Such a shame I love Days Gone. Not the best Sony single player experience but it was decent. I much rather have a days gone 2 that has a full on single player (maybe even allow co-op) story mode. With a tacked on live service looter shooter escape from tarkov type of multiplayer.

Rather than something like concord. Looks like the run of the mill destiny/overwatch type of game that's not even free to play and is most likely going to die within months.

[anast]

This live service game will fail.

[Redemption-64]

“I do have an opinion on something that your audience may find of interest, and it might piss some of them off,” Garvin replied. “If you love a game, buy it at f****** full price. I can't tell you how many times I've seen gamers say 'yeah, I got that on sale, I got it through PS Plus, whatever'.”

This is a quote from the Days Gone director. The game clearly did not do well when it mattered. Most of the talk about a sequel came after the game was heavily discounted. Here is my question, why should Sony or another company invest 100s of millions into a sequel when most didn't care to support and buy the game at full price, but only after it was discounted?

[RNTody]

Absolutely this. I don't mind that people loved Days Gone, I personally couldn't get into it, but acting like Sony is some sort of evil corporate machine when the game was not a massive financial success is bizarre when we're talking about the same publisher that backed games like Dreams, Death Stranding, Stellar Blade, Returnal, Ghost of Tsushima and now Astro Bot.

I'm sorry but at this point this director needs to stop being salty about his game. Death Stranding was a niche game that ended up selling five million copies before its Director's Cut came out and it's made by a video game legend in Kojima. It getting a sequel is not out of this world to imagine.

[shinoff2183]

The director didn't say anything horrendous

[Abear21]

I mean, they did all the work making the game, they could have put more effort in trying to sell and market it. If it really was so outstanding it would have sold out the gate, but the characters and overall appearance was drab. Timing of this design wasn’t great and nobody asked for another zombie open world game.

They showed off the hordes some before launch I remember, but should have shown more and not held back and done more aggressive marketing.

Days Gone is an above average game, it’s simply not great, and nostalgia always looks rose tinted. It was no day one $70 game for most and wasn’t sold or billed as being AAA

[ShwaaMan]

Is this guy ever going to shut up and move on with his life? Days Gone did fairly well, got decent reviews, but frankly doesn’t even crack the top 20 best PlayStation exclusives. They don’t owe you another 250 million to make a sequel dude.

[gold_drake]

and i feel like we all forget what a broken mess is was at launch. it might not be anymore but people move on quickly

[ShwaaMan]

Totally. Personally I don’t like the characters or writing, the hordes were cool but everything else had been done before…and better. I would rank it average at best and he’s acting like he got screwed over… and he does this every 6 months or so for the last 5 years.

There are so many games that are way better than Days Gone that completely flopped due to a hundred different reasons. S*** happens and it sucks and a lot of people worked really hard on it I’m sure, that does not mean you are guaranteed success or a franchise to make your career off of… happens all the time.

[dumahim]

While I think this stuff should not be forgotten, I don't think you can really put that all on the dev. The people in charge (publisher) are the ones who decide when to release the game. If it was up to the dev, it wouldn't have been released until they were ready.

[Abear21]

He created generic characters in a familiar setting, people should stop going on about this “hidden gem” that is under appreciated and not properly supported by Sony.
That game (series) is Infamous.

[RNTody]

I so agree with you ShwaaMan, and everyone seems to forget that this game scored more than 10 percent and up to 20 percent less OVERALL on Metacritic compared to Sony's usual standard. We should actually respect the fact that Sony isn't swayed by the number of units it sold, when it didn't meet their quality standards. By these people's logic Sony should push whatever crap sells rather than worry about delivering top quality games which they do.

I cannot believe some commenters here are comparing a best-of-the-generation game like Bloodborne to this decent-at-best game that most of these people won't show up for a sequel for. Yet people are still begging for a Bloodborne remaster.

[Travesty]

I think the majority of players who played Days Gone know it got reviewed bomb before they even fixed it. Some reviews came out 2 weeks before the game released and those bugs were pretty much fixed or almost fixed. So it really didn’t have a fair chance since Sony wants 90 and above metacritic score on their first party games. I understand Ross’s fustration since it had a good story and you would want to see it completed.

On Bend Studio’s title. I think I’ve read that it will have multiplayer. I don’t know if that means it’s a story game with a multiplayer features or a multiplayer focused title. Some think it’s another GAaS game. Whatever it is $250 million seems like normal budget for a new title these days. The only Playstation Studios that didn’t have this big budget was Sucker Punch with Ghost of Tsushima.

All in all I just hope for a fun experience and give them the benefit of the doubt. And see what they can do.

[jznrpg]

I bought the collectors Edition and never opened it. I bought another copy too. The game was great to me but it got crapped on by the media and the a lot of gamers crapped on it. It sold well only have the big price drops

[Psychonaut85]

Look I love Days Gone, and I wish there was a sequel. But I feel like not a month goes by without the director publicly complaining about it. Even before launch he was always whining “why is everyone calling them zombies, they’re freakers” etc. I get that it sucks to see something you worked on so hard to not get the respect it deserves, but move on bro. It’s been 5 years, throw yourself into whatever’s next.

[gold_drake]

yea. i feel like he always comes back every year to say how sony didnt want a sequel lol

[Rainbowcookie]

Men in black

[Abnor_Mal]

I fear Bend Studio next game will fail badly since it’s a Gaas game, and thus may have their necks on the chopping block soon.

[Walalon]

Imagine Days Gone 2 with single player and multiplayer component. The last one being like a World War Z, Left 4 Dead like missions... That would be awesome and open the franchise to new horizons, but oh well dreaming is free at least for now.

[gold_drake]

look, whatever it is u think about Days Gone, this is such a weird thing to bring up every.damn
year.

if he wants to make another spiritual successor, he should do it, but all he does is shit talking stuff he was a part of. ha.

that might have been appropriate the year of the launch and maybe the next. but its been 5 years.

time to move on.

[derek]

Good lord, Mr Ross move on already. Still whining about what your ex-employer is doing instead of talking about the project you are working on now.

[Inverno]

I preferred Days Gone over LoU. Days Gone focused a bit more on gameplay and world building, the story was a bit rough but there was a lot more going on compared to LoU.

[proudly_X]

Sold more but didn’t earn more. Days gone was grossly sold on discount.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Single player games > GaaS :)

[mastershredder]

Geez still butthurt Ross? Sony Does NOT want another zombie game in the fing oversaturated market of zombie games dude. You gambled your project with Sony, you KNEW they had final say, so please stfu already. Fing pathetic.

[Abear21]

Couldn’t get into this game because it felt like the bike had a top speed of 25mph.

[SlothLordPootus]

Days Gone 2 was proposed at $150 million? Jesus.

[maelstromb]

Sony's logic:
Sell 7-7.5 million units = Failure, no one liked the game. (Bloodborne, Days Gone)
Sell 9+ million units = Success, everyone and their grandmother love the game. (Ghosts of Tsushima, TLOU, Uncharted)

Sony's criteria between success and failure is razor thin and insanely out of touch with its player base. If 7+ million people went to see a new movie while in theaters, it would be hailed a massive success, but in the games industry within Sony's world, it means screw all the people who enjoyed it and move on to something "better". Like I said, out of touch.

[SimpleDad]

Spiderman 2 sold 11 mill
Sucseess!
But...
Spiderman 1 sold 22 mill
So...it failed?

No no no it didn't no!

[RNTody]

Are you seriously ignoring that Days Gone had lukewarm to weak critical reception? It scored 11-20 percent less than Sony's games on average on metacritic and launched in a messy state. The fact that it sold lots of units is no guarantee its sequel will be a success given how it was received. Not to mention the Days Gone devs crying about people not buying the game at full price and reviewers being "woke".

The game clearly didn't get the reception Sony expects and they didn't feel a sequel should be greenlit. By your logic Sony should release games with the quality level of Fast and Furious, Call of Duty and Transformers because they sell units. There's something called quality standards as well. Days Gone isn't fit to lick Bloodborne's boots in terms of quality, I'm afraid.

[Makersbreath2]

They also put way too much stock on what meta critic says. Whether a good or bad score, the problem with meta critic is way too many on there are just following the herd. They don’t want to be one outlet that gave the opposite review from everyone else.

[Knightofelemia]

Still angry Sony scrapped Days Gone 2 I quite enjoyed the first game yeah it had bugs but I thought it was fun. I enjoyed trophy hunting that game.