Many publishers in the industry would look at Days Gone as a success, thanks to its sizeable and dedicated fan base, its impressive sales, and the improvements it saw with post-launch updates. For Sony, however, that most certainly wasn’t the case. A recent report revealed that when SIE Bend Studio pitched a Days Gone sequel, Sony turned it down, with the game’s lukewarm critical reception (it sits at 71 on Metacritic) being one of the primary reasons for that decision.
Sony has enjoyed widespread critical reception and accolades for almost all of its major AAA releases in the last few years, and with Days Gone being the odd one out, Bend Studio suffered the consequences. And according to John Garvin, who was the game’s lead writer and creative director, and left the studio shortly after its launch, Metacritic score is hugely important to Sony as a publisher.
Speaking in a recent interview with God of War and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe (which you can view in full below), Garvin said that “Metacritic is everything” as far as Sony is concerned, and went on to suggest that Days Gone’s low Metacritic score was responsible for both his departure and Days Gone 2’s cancellation.
“This is just the reality of Sony,” he said. “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.”
Days Gone’s co-director Jeff Ross (who is also no longer at Bend) also revealed recently that the studio’s pitch for the sequel involved a separate shared world co-op experience.
Though a sequel looks highly unlikely at this point, the Days Gone property has at least something to look forward to, with a PC version of the game launching on May 18.
