The news that a pitch for Days Gone 2 had been rejected by Sony prompted David Jaffe, the game designer known for creating God of War and Twisted Metal, to host video interviews with Days Gone directors on his YouTube channel. Last week he had Jeff Ross, while yesterday it was John Garvin’s turn (who, by the way, was also the game’s writer).
Garvin revealed to have left Sony Bend merely days after the game’s release in April 2019. When Jaffe asked him how he took the first wave of Days Gone reviews, Garvin replied:
I took it hard, to be honest, because, again…This is just the reality of Sony, Metacritic score is everything. If you’re the creative director on a franchise and your game is coming out to a 70, you’re not going to be the creative director on that franchise for very long.
Indeed, Sony has had a string of critically acclaimed game releases with the likes of Uncharted, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Dreams, and most recently Ghost of Tsushima.
On the other hand, there’s evidence Sony might actually be looking for both outstanding critical acclaim and commercial success nowadays. For example, Japan Studio’s Gravity Rush 2 had an average Metacritic score of 80 but didn’t really sell well and that was the last game ever made by Team Gravity. Japan Studio as a whole was essentially shut down and will now focus on supporting Asobi Team, the makers of Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Astro’s Playroom, as confirmed by Sony earlier this month.
Days Gone may not have had high critical acclaim (though yours truly did enjoy it a lot), but it did sell pretty well and managed to find a dedicated fanbase. That’s demonstrated by the Change.org petition asking Sony to greenlight a sequel; it already got over 32.6K signatures and even Jeff Ross himself asked his Twitter followers to participate while tagging SIE Worldwide Studio head Hermen Hulst.
Damn, I can’t believe this Days Gone petition is rapidly approaching one of the top signed petitions on https://t.co/uvgcQWItnB. Please jump on there and help push it over the 25k mark! #DaysGone #PlayStation @hermenhulst pic.twitter.com/ftaMbVPgF5
— Jeff Ross (@JakeRocket) April 16, 2021
Days Gone is about to launch on PC in a month from now. Perhaps a successful launch on this platform could persuade Sony to eventually develop another installment, thus satisfying everyone eager for a follow-up on that story cliffhanger.
