Days Gone 2 has been a hot topic of late, following a report that claimed Sony canned the sequel to focus on properties like The Last Of Us and Uncharted. The creative director and writer of the game has now weighed in on the discussion, and he points the finger at players who didn't purchase Days Gone at full price.
These comments from former Bend Studio director and writer John Garvin arose during a podcast hosted by God Of War creator David Jaffe, where Garvin was asked whether the addition of Days Gone into the PlayStation Plus Collection led to a "meaningful uptick of engagement" with the game. "I do have an opinion on something that your audience may find of interest, and it might p*ss some of them off," he replied. "If you love a game, buy it at f*cking 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'." So, if you've got a PlayStation 5 and subscribe to PlayStation Plus, Days Gone is available to add to your library for no additional fee, as well as other games like Detroit: Become Human, Monster Hunter: World, Persona 5.
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If we've said it once, we've said it one thousand times: it's super duper difficult to buy a PlayStation 5 right now due to scarcity and scalpers. However, as Days Gone is one of the games offered in April's PlayStation Plus lot for PlayStation 4, this crowd hasn't been left wanting. As the expense has already gone out of your account for the subscription service, trying Days Gone for free before you buy makes sense for a lot of players. Not everyone has the income to purchase games for £50 or even £60 at launch, and seasonal sales open up the game for wider audiences.
"I'm just saying, you don't, but don't complain if a game doesn't get a sequel if it wasn't supported at launch," continued Garvin. "It's like, God of War got whatever number millions of sales at launch and, you know, Days Gone didn't. [I'm] just speaking for me personally as a developer, I don't work for Sony, I don't know what the numbers are." Garvin then related his statements to an instance of piracy with Syphon Filter, a third-person shooter series developed by Bend Studio. "I can tell you that when we were doing [Syphon Filter] Dark Mirror [on PSP], we got so f*cked on Dark Mirror because piracy was a thing and Sony wasn't really caught up on what piracy was doing to sales," he started to say.
"And we would show them torrents, a torrent site had 200,000 copies of Dark Mirror being downloaded. If I remember it right, the numbers could be wrong, but regardless, I was pissed about it then, I was like 'this is money out of my pocket'," he elaborated. "So I think the uptick in engagement with the game is not as important as, did you buy the game at full price? Because if you did, then that's supporting the developers directly." Days Gone 2 could still happen, according to its director, though we likely won't see it for some time. In spite of this, fans have been out in force showing their dedication to Deacon St. John's journey, even if Sony's minds are made up.
"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," said Garvin. Hence why we're getting a remake of The Last Of Us, which won countless Game of the Year awards, and Days Gone is left by the wayside.
Featured Image Credit: Bend Studio