Former game director Days Gone explains what the sequel would have looked like, if Sony and PlayStation had believed in the license.
In zombie video games, very few have managed to score us. Days Gone is part of this very selective list as its open world was inspiring and its storytelling impacting. But since its release in 2019, players have been asking for more. It seems that the first adventure left them hungry for more. However, a sequel is still not planned, and for good reason, Sony would have serious doubts about the popularity (and durability) of the franchise.
At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies. It’s since gone on to sell more, and then a million + on Steam. Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment. #daysgone #PlayStation https://t.co/KMZr2pGe9r
– Jeff Ross (@JakeRocket) January 5, 2022
Recently the director of Days gone, Jeff Ross, returned to this opus which marked many players. He thus declared that ” studio management always made us feel it was a big disappointment “. And yet, the game has managed to sell more than 8 million copies on consoles, as much as Ghost of Tsushima, which was entitled to a Director’s Cut version.
Has Sony refused to produce a possible blockbuster?
The former developer from Sony, in an interview, clarified his vision of things, and what could have brought a sequel to the adventures of Deacon St. John. He explains :
” We would have kept the story heavy and strong. We would have kept the bike, of course. And I think we would have broadened the tone a bit in a more technical direction,[…] more outward, a new reality. I think it would have been a bit more – I don’t mean Avengers, but something where the player had new resources, a little bit of what the government had.
I would have added more systems. If they are simple, they can be elegant and very rich. I knew that by adding an extra layer or two to the systemic elements of the game, we could have navigated ourselves there, which would have resulted in great richness for players and a plethora of unique open-world moments and reactions that we had never seen it before. “
A start that ended too quickly
The developer is therefore particularly disappointed not to be able to materialize all these ideas, which would surely have taken off Days gone a new time. As he explains, “ first you create the minimum viable entry and then you hope you can build the second. Because you don’t argue over the foundations, you argue over the epic new ideas that you are going to put into it “. This first part was therefore conceived as the foundations, a preamble, for an epic story that can (perhaps) never be told.
