IGN: Every once in a while, the student instructs the teacher.
Sony's Bend Studio lays off 30 percent of its workforce following the cancellation of its live-service project.
I would even pay 80 bucks for an UE5 based more immersive Days Gone 2 .... or even a new Syphon Filter.
But nah .... rather lay off staff & re-remasters Days Gone i.e Days Gone Reloaded.
Stubborn Sony not wanting to listen to fans is paying the price of its arrogance. They could have let these studios grow and do what they do best and let others like Bungie maybe make gaas for those who want it.
Days Gone 2 is obviously what they should focus on next. We’ve had enough remasters and reeditions of the first one
They were listening to the money that games like Fortnite were pulling in. Market research shows service games when successful make more money. It’s a gamble that Sony was too cocky to worry about. Now ppl are losing their jobs in an economy that’s gonna slow down any minute.
@Profchaos
The workers let go were probably hired for the live service game and released now because it was cancelled
I understand the argument that if fans truly wanted a sequel to Days Gone, they should've supported it at launch at full price. But that perspective misses a lot of important context.
First of all, Days Gone launched in a broken state. It needed several patches just to become stable and playable. For many gamers, paying $60 for something clearly unfinished just wasn’t justifiable. That wasn’t a lack of support—it was a fair response to a product that didn’t meet expectations out of the gate.
Despite that, over 8 million people eventually bought the game. It built a strong, passionate fanbase—proof that the game had value and potential once it was properly patched. A sequel would’ve had a much stronger foundation: a team that had learned from the first game, a loyal audience, and way more hype around a continued story.
But Days Gone also had to contend with another challenge—it was unfairly judged against other first-party PlayStation exclusives. Critics compared it directly to polished, masterful experiences like Uncharted, The Last of Us, and God of War. And while those comparisons might make sense from a branding perspective, they didn’t reflect the reality of the situation.
Studios like Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio had years—sometimes decades—of experience working with big teams and high budgets on flagship titles. Days Gone was Sony Bend Studio’s first major AAA console release in a very long time—their last being Syphon Filter back in the PS1 era. Before that, they were mostly focused on handheld games. Expecting them to match the output of the most elite studios in the industry, right out of the gate, was unrealistic and frankly unfair.
The harsh critical reception didn’t reflect the potential Days Gone actually had, and it probably played a big role in Sony's decision not to greenlight a sequel. Instead, they pushed Bend and other talented studios like Bluepoint toward live service projects—chasing trends instead of trusting the kinds of games their fans consistently show up for. Many of those live service games have since been canceled, likely wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and valuable time that could’ve gone toward meaningful single-player experiences.
So when people say, “You should’ve bought Days Gone at launch if you wanted a sequel,” they’re ignoring the bigger picture. Gamers didn’t reject the game—they waited for it to be worth their time. And once it was, they absolutely showed up. That should’ve been seen as a foundation to build on, not a reason to walk away from the franchise
@neutralgamer1992
Has a point. I supported this game day 1. There was either and audio sync issue or a cut scene issue that ruined the game for me early on. I dont blame gamers at all for holding off until it meets their standard.
I seriously wonder who makes these types of decisions. Days Gone was a solid game. It didn't get that much love at first but people eventually saw the diamond in the rough. The ending basically guaranteed a sequel, but someone said "nope, let's pitch a LS game instead". And the yes-men were all "Great idea, sir!!"
Urgh. Jim Ryan’s sh***y GaaS plans still ripple across their studios even today.
Such a shame, they should have just been allowed to make Days Gone 2.
Sony need to truly let go of their live service plans once and for all.
Agreed. I think the live service era is dead. Even titans like Destiny are starting to fall apart. Sony needs to shift their focus back to their single player games.
I don’t think the GaaS overall was a bad idea they’ve seen the success of others, however, forcing all your studios to focus on it was absolutely insane.
Those kind of games are backed by hundreds if not thousands over 1,000 developers working on those games year-round even after release for continuous new content monthly, quarterly, and huge annual or bi-annual updates. It was stupid to expect taking your single-player focused studios and have them become GaaS focused studios when many of them have skipped Multi-player modes the entire last generation (a stepping stone into GaaS).
He was after his Fortnite, Apex, etc… and I feel they could have found that by building a singular new studio dedicated to helping developers like Naughty Dog bring Faction 2.0 to life. At most they should have had:
Factions 2.0 GaaS (PlayStation’s Open World Survival)
Destiny 3 (Bungie needs to revamp Destiny)
Horizon GaaS (PlayStation’s Monster Hunter)
A new AAA IP
That’s it. I mean technically Gran Turismo is a GaaS so that could count, and an Open World InFamous meets DC Universe Online could work with custom hero / villain classes.
"I don’t think the GaaS overall was a bad idea they’ve seen the success of others, however, forcing all your studios to focus on it was absolutely insane."
What's more interesting is that SIE was not actually 'forcing' their studios to make GaaS games. I have to find the article again but it was explained that these studios knew about Jim's plans for GaaS games and typically pitched those types of games to SIE because they would have a better chance of getting greenlit for production. They were chasing dollars instead of their ideal games.
Edit: I found the article. Take it for what it is, lol
https://wccftech.com/playst...
@ra
I don’t think they were forcing all of their studios, however, that initiative didn’t just come out of no where. Jim Ryan’s entire purpose was to make PlayStation more profitable than ever, and a collection of successful GaaS across platforms would have definitely done that. Based on his talk tracks and interviews he is a numbers guy, and he and Herman Hulst ran with this GaaS solution to all the PlayStation teams.
And when your CEO says this is what we’re getting behind and what the company and shareholders want going forward, everyone falls in line and pushes towards it.
Naughty Dog probably wanted Faction 2 with or without influence.
Sony Bend wanted Days Gone 2 and it was shot down, and now more than ever it makes way more sense, since the game, while initial impressions were slightly above average (which at the time wasn’t good enough being compared to God of War, Ghost, TLoUs, etc…), has found a cult following and has ended up selling extremely well across both PS4 and PS5. But instead they were dropped into this GaaS IP that failed and now they’ve wasted years of development when Days Gone 2 could have already been released or releasing.
Sony literally sent Playstation studios into a death trap!
They forced studios into this GaaS bs just cancel their games midway in development and fire thousand of people in the end!
WTF is happening over there? Why those CEOs still got to keep their jobs after billions and billions dollars invested in new studios and games just to so many developers fired and projects canceled in the end?
This is the worst generation of Playstation! Period!
They didn't actually 'force' their studios, per se, but the initiative was certainly there.
https://wccftech.com/playst...
They didn't have a choice lets be honest, a new boss comes in and lays out all these plans....what are any of them going to do? Pitch a single player game with none of the things that guy is asking for? You're just asking to be given less funding, less notice, less resources and the like. or maybe you're scared incase the guy decides to get rid of you for someone who will actually give him things that he wants.
They didn't get brutally forced but they had no choice but to go with the flow or Jim would find someone who would.
@Foxtrot
No, they definitely had a choice but many chose the path of least resistance.
We have plenty of single-player, non-LS games that began development during the LS initiative. Those projects obviously got greenlit for production. These studios just needed to have good ideas for single player games, but most just chose to come up with half-assed LS pitches.
Can't believe Sony has been shooting themselves in the foot this gen. Abandoning what made them great to chase industry trends
Alanah explains the reasons why in this video which goes into more detail: https://www.youtube.com/wat... But its basically down to appeasing their shareholders
Neil Druckmann, the creative director of The Last of Us, is working on a new, unannounced game at Naughty Dog.
I know they've expertise in third person games.
But given the lack there of in PS catalog, I'd want the other project to be a narrative first person ND game.
Look, there are lots of 3rd person Sony games in variety of flavors. And ND is already doing intergalactic. And since they're pretty expert at gameplay and tech wise in whatever they do, they can easily venture a new genre and ship a first person game/shooter.
So, judging from the dislikes, hardcore Sony fans here don't like first person games, anymore?
I don't really have a big opinion on first vs third person perspective. That's one of the least important things to me when rating how much I like a game
I actually hate 1st person. very hard to associate with a character you only see their hands most of the time.
funny thing is with failures like Concord and soon to be Marathon, Factions could have been Sony's guaranteed huge success with a shooter! I don't ever play online shooters anymore, but I would have come out of shooter retirement for a new Factions game.
{ coming from the above thread }
So PS Fellas hate first person games now? (Understandable)
But praise Killzone and Resistance series, as well?
And hope for a return of first party first person games? ~ but from where? insomniac is deep in marvel territory, guerilla is deep in aloy territory ... suckerP are not as big to undertake that change + dedicated to Ghost series
The only options are ND and Santa Monica, who are rumoured to be involved in parallel projects. ~ so take your pick.
And the other 'new' studios at Sony are not that hot right now with knee deep in live service fiasco
It’d be cool if they bought the Parappa licence and made Parappa 3 that’d be the real good timeline
Wait I thought they cancelled a game? Or did they announce another project?
https://wccftech.com/naught...
I’m assuming it’s the unannounced game in the title you posted.
“Naughty Dog Reportedly Canceled a Single Player Game This Year, But Another Unannounced Game Is Still in the Works“
Devs cancel games all the time early stages if it doesn’t turn out the way they envisioned it. We just don’t hear about every one of them.
Yeah only a narcissist like Druckmann would announce a game this early that has a 99% chance of being cancelled.
Some speculate it could be Uncharted spin off. It's already 3 years in production so yeah 2028 maybe 2027 at the absolute earliest but most likely 28 release.
Also to add. kojimas next game that's not OD is said to be 5 to 6 years out for PS. That metal gear inspired game. These games are just too far off it seems.
'We have several directors on Intergalactic. I work with two game directors: Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau, [and] I have a co-writer in Clair Carré.'
Damage has been done but it's not too late yet if they dump him now. Probably won't happen though. It's sad, honestly. We'll see what happens after Intergalactic. That game is going to have a huge impact one way or another.
Yes because they didn’t make some of the greatest games. Right, we all just agree to live in your fantasy from now on.
yall say that about ever developer and then they end up becoming more successful lol
Downfall? If anything he is a huge reason they are on the map! A few apes don't like the material hasn't stopped his games from being massive hits.
I have grievances with Druckmann, but he does deserve some benefit of the doubt. He's been in crucial roles at the company through all of their successes.
Maybe wait and see?
Former Naughty Dog dev says Resident Evil 4 inspired Unchartted and even Gears of War, particularly the over-the-shoulder camera view.
It revolutionized third-person shooters, in a genius way that gives you full control of aiming.
No, I mean RE4. Like the whole snap to over-shoulder and precision aiming was what I meant.
I won’t deny Winback does pave the way in some respect. But it’s not the same at all.
I thought this was common knowledge. Resident Evil Revolutionised over the shoulder aiming in 3rd person shooters/action games
Influenced basically every third person action game made after it, GTA uses the over the shoulder perspective when shooting since the 4th installment, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2 too and the Batman Arkham series has the over the shoulder perspective as the main camera throughout the whole game series.
Obviously there are a ton more examples but you get the point 🗿.
