Days Gone Not Getting A Sequel Was Studio Bends Decision, The Game Was Cancelled Internally Before A Pitch Could Ever Reach Sony

Angry_Megalodon said:
Dude, he's saying the opposite in the second tweet. They knew Sony would reject it.
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🙄

They didn't KNOW anything. They ASSUMED. Can't blame Sony for canceling a project they were never presented. To repeat my comment from a few posts above: "We were certain they'd say no so we didn't bother" is a weak ass excuse, especially since they then spent years implying Sony was to blame.

They can't say yes (or no) if they're not presented with the project at all.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
Wow. WTF. So it was Bend's idea the whole time!
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Nah, there is more to it than that. in later interviews, the director said that people like Herman did not like Days gone 1 and the Bend executives knew this. it was never going to get greenlit. it wasnt all Bend leadership, it was also herman who likely told them behind the scenes to drop the dg2 pitch.
 
ElFenomeno said:
I tried playing Days Gone some time ago, on Extra I think. Man, I just gave up after a few hours.
Bland, didn't do anything particularly great, shooting was meh, boring open world.
I was also fed up at that time with open world games so that didn't help.
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I felt exactly the same way but decided to give it a chance a year after trying it out. It gets much much better in terms of story and gameplay. I played it for 60hrs and it was a blast. Really disappointed we're not getting a sequel
 
I hope they return to it someday, replayed Days Gone a few months ago and it's very good game, with the secret ending they could have added some cool things to the sequel, maybe one day..
 
Punished Miku said:
You guys ever notice how anyone that leaves Sony and talks about their experience there is publicly branded as "crazy?"
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Tin-Foil-Hat.jpg
 
Nydius said:
A completely irrelevant question. Sony bosses can't green light a project by one of their studios if the studio bosses never pitch it to them in the first place.

The excuse of "we didn't bother because we were sure Sony would have said no" is weak as fuck and shows a complete lack of leadership by the team at Bend. If they thought it was worth a sequel they should have, at the bare minimum, presented it. Then fought for it if they felt strongly enough.

How's that adage go?
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take?
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That is absolutely untrue in this real world that we live in. The owner of a company and IP can direct the company to make a game using said IP anytime it wants to. That is not a controversial opinion. That is a fact.
 
MagusMajul said:
The game was a last of us rip off, we need an FPS adventure game like halo or killzone on ps5
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Tell us you haven't played Days Gone without telling us. It was nothing like tlou. It was open world, tlou was not. It had motorcycle as part of the main character, tlou did not. Tlou was mostly stealth cover shooter, days gone had more options for combat. Tlou had mostly singular enemies, and they weren't called zombies. Days gone had singular but also hoards of 1000s of zombies/freakers.
Days gone also didn't have a woke sequel that pissed off 75% of the fans of the first game, TLOU did.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Wow. WTF. So it was Bend's idea the whole time!
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SlimySnake said:
Nah, there is more to it than that. in later interviews, the director said that people like Herman did not like Days gone 1 and the Bend executives knew this. it was never going to get greenlit. it wasnt all Bend leadership, it was also herman who likely told them behind the scenes to drop the dg2 pitch.
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Just to eloborate on this a bit further. you only need to look at the sales numbers. DG1 sold 7.5 million and didnt get a sequel. devs were told to pitch DG2 for six months instead of immediately starting work on DG1 like most sequels do. Meanwhile DS1 sold only 4 million and was greenlit for a sequel. Even when looking at the revenue in dollars, its obvious that the game was a success. $265 million for a game made by a small team of 80-100 devs is pretty damn good.

uVN6cwi.png
 
Nydius said:
🙄

They didn't KNOW anything. They ASSUMED. Can't blame Sony for canceling a project they were never presented. To repeat my comment from a few posts above: "We were certain they'd say no so we didn't bother" is a weak ass excuse, especially since they then spent years implying Sony was to blame.

They can't say yes (or no) if they're not presented with the project at all.
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Of course they knew, the same way you know when your boss is happy with your performance or your chances of getting promoted.

Sony rather listens to weasels like Jason Schreier instead of their fanbase. Well, they will learn the lesson the hard way.

This is what's going to happen:

- Bend will reuse many assets to get the Days Gone fans onboard. It will be a Days Gone without zombies and masculine men.

- People will compare the new game to Days Gone. That will lead to some backlash from devs, who will attack fans.

- The game will sell 50% less than DG, which should be seen as a flop.

- Layoffs will happen. The media will say the industry is in shambles and gamers are bad.
 
Angry_Megalodon said:
It didn't review poorly because of that. Days Gone was more polished than anything ever released by Bethesda or Ubisoft.

The media were trashing the game well before release.
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Yep, the woke crowd doesn't want to admit their piss boy reviewers tanked a great game over ideology and being threatened by manly protagonist.
 
SlimySnake said:
Nah, there is more to it than that. in later interviews, the director said that people like Herman did not like Days gone 1 and the Bend executives knew this. it was never going to get greenlit. it wasnt all Bend leadership, it was also herman who likely told them behind the scenes to drop the dg2 pitch.
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What exactly was the studio doing between March and November 2019?
 
Days Gone isn't a game that I would want a sequel for. I didn't think it had anywhere to go. I enjoyed my time with it, but I thought it was derivative of existing end of the world stories. It didn't offer much that I found original or engaging enough to continue in that universe.

I can understand a creative type being attached to the characters they created, but this guy is off the map.
 
SlimySnake said:
Just to eloborate on this a bit further. you only need to look at the sales numbers. DG1 sold 7.5 million and didnt get a sequel. devs were told to pitch DG2 for six months instead of immediately starting work on DG1 like most sequels do. Meanwhile DS1 sold only 4 million and was greenlit for a sequel. Even when looking at the revenue in dollars, its obvious that the game was a success. $265 million for a game made by a small team of 80-100 devs is pretty damn good.

uVN6cwi.png
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Revenue isn't everything. That sweet platform holder 30% cut is the prize. It strikes me that Sony makes games for 3 reasons: as technical showcases, as revenue generators, and to round out the offering when the wider market doesn't. Something like Astrobot will likely meet all three criteria.

We all like a good laugh at Knack, but in 2013 it was the only Family Friendly mascot game out on the then new consoles. That's why they made a bundle, it helps position the brand. I'm sure Days Gone did OK revenue wise, but did it bring anything else to the game? Not sure, and not sure it's the best use of a first party studio.
 
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Clear said:
Well, the "woke reviewer" argument is 100% DEFENSIBLE.

The way its presented makes it seem way more reactionary than it actually is. A number of outlets did penalize the game for its perceived lack of towing the line to progressive attitudes and politics. This is not opinion, but fact. The wedding scene was treated out of context to make the game seem sexist and regressive, when it actually isn't.

People forget how keen a lot of people were, frankly here as well as in the media, to shit all over Days Gone pre-release.
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Fucking-A!!!

Well said.
 
That's a shame because I really think that Days Gone was a good proof-of-concept and if they could've iterated on it, it could've been a really dope-ass game.
 
You know the media was against ds when even in their reviews/venomous tweets they didn't even get their facts straight about the game.

The ride me joke and not having black zombies is fucking explained inside the game.
 
I mean we have the word of a long storied lead who had been making games for many years, vs a 20 something with pronouns.

There's definitely something in the middle in this situation and I wouldn't take either side as gospel.

You have salty older devs vs the constant victimhood modern audience devs.
 
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Punished Miku said:
You guys ever notice how anyone that leaves Sony and talks about their experience there is publicly branded as "crazy?"
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Can you name them besides the two most vocal people, David Jaffe and John Gavin? You can't because that's all there is and the only people that are consistently getting threads made about them.
 
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