As Direcotr Jeff Ross reports, Sony was not at all interested in ideas for a Days Gone sequel at the time. Instead, the team presented their superiors with an idea for an open-world resistance game, which was also rejected. Sony threw a reboot of Siphon Filter into the room – as Ross believes, but only as a pure activity.
That, and some other information regarding how the plans for a second Days Gone came to nothing, the ex-Sony employee reported in a YouTube video. In it you can follow game developer David Jaffe in a video call with Ross and his colleague John Garvin (who, however, is holding back on the topic). In it, the latter reports that Sony gave the impression at the time that Days Gone was a flop, although it did not sell so badly and apparently blocked all further ideas in this direction.
“I think it was dead on arrival,” explains Ross regarding a possible one Sequel proposal for Days Gone. While the team was still working on a pitch for the successor, Ross already had the feeling that he was actually not wanted. The opinion of their Days Gone plans was apparently already too influenced by the first game. According to Ross, the appraisal of the superiors came “from the point of view: The first part was a failure in many ways and did not sell well.”
So Sony suggested alternatives to the team, such as a reboot of Siphon Filter, which Ross was not interested in: “They asked us: hey, how regarding a Siphon Filter reboot …?” He goes on to explain that it was apparently just an emergency solution to pull a Sony franchise out of the hat to use: “It was just a question – ‘Are there other IPs that we have and that we use be able?’ And the only thing we had was siphon filters, but honestly I had no idea how to revive siphon filters, I wasn’t interested at all.
No wonder that Ross got the impression early on that there was no interest in Days Gone 2: Ross describes the mood in development: “It was very obvious that we shouldn’t be talking regarding Days Gone, even while we were working on it Pitch (for a sequel) worked and developed it “Ross adds,” They were interested in almost everything except a Days Gone 2. “
Instead, the team apparently threw another idea into the room: “The suggestion I made was, ‘Open-world resistance would be fucking awesome.’ All these open-world loops we came up with. Resistance almost wrote itself, there are so many aspects of this title that are suitable for open-world gameplay, “said Ross,” but they weren’t interested in that either. “
Looks like the ideas weren’t exactly crowned with success during this time. Although neither gave such reasons for their departure at the time, Jeff Ross and John Garvin from Days Gone both in December 2020 Sony Bend Studio left, seems less surprising in view of these disappointing project phases.
This week on Twitter, Jeff Ross spoke once more regarding hoping for the chance to make Days Gone even better in a sequel, and some fans from the community confirm him:
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
However, his statement is not only met with approval, but also with isolated criticism. One article says that as an AAA production you have a gigantic budget that has already flowed into the first part, from which you might and should have made something better.
