And we’ll start the feature by taking a look at the promotional trailer for Eight Days released as part of E3 2006. It’s tense, but dynamic, full of action and noise, punctuated by real stakes of danger. While this trailer, amongst other footage shown to promote the potential of the PlayStation 3, was cited as media that seemed not to directly reflect the system’s capabilities, what was shown displayed potential as a concept – particularly for a mainstream Western consuming audience.

Commentary from a developer from who worked on the game – Richard Bunn’s whose comments are sourced from a Eurogamer interview in 2011 – reveal some interesting background about the game’s development background. While commentary from 2008 from Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide Studio, talked about how Sony was wanting to emphasize online gaming and that Eight Days as a game was outside of that, it turns out that this wasn’t the reason for the game’s cancellation. Bunn has stated that the game was going to have online co-operative play, and that the whole concept behind the game was a sort of what he called “buddy gameplay”.

“Imagine Uncharted, where you have two Nathan Drakes, and you can cover swap between each other and chuck ammo between each other. That was pretty much the game.”

Online co-op was part of the plan from the beginning, though not multiplayer play. Once work on Eight Days was completed, a large part of the amassed team of a few dozen staff was to be directed towards the other major project in Sony’s wheelhouse – the third entry in the Getaway series. Bunn, in the same interview, would corroborate the suggestion that Eight Days was further in development than the third Getaway game. The tech demo shown at E3 2005 was representative of much of the work done on for game. But unfortunately, as we all know, neither title was to be completed.

The cancellation of both of these major projects from Sony London both came at around the time that Phil Harrison, the previous holder of Shuhei Yoshida’s position, left Sony – with him resigning in February 2008, and Shuhei Yoshida, formerly senior vice president at Sony Worldwide Studios USA, taking on Harrison’s position officially in May of the same year. The third The Getaway game and Eight Days were officially cancelled in June 2008. Bunn said that Yoshida evaluated the divisions within Sony and concluded that the Sony London studio should move towards making games for a social or casual audience. Besides The Getaway games, a sizeable portion of Sony London’s portfolio is made up of sports games – and the portfolio of Sony London during the time of the PlayStation 3 and the PSP is significantly comprised of SingStar and EyeToy.

That said, word from the company to the developers working on Eight Days was that it was just “on hold” – sentiments produced in 2009 after the word initially spread in 2008 that the The Getaway 3 and Eight Days were completely cancelled. It was reportedly a sore experience for the developers within Sony who worked on the game, with Bunn stating that the suggestion of even using assets from the game felt difficult. Eight Days itself was still in pre-production though it was further along in development than The Getaway 3, per comments from Yoshida in 2008. Bunn mentions that there were those in development who spent years working on the title (with Bunn only spending six months).

Yoshida mentioned in a separate interview that The Getaway 3 and Eight Days were at a point where they would be evaluated and it would be determined how much resources would be assigned to the titles – a regular process. Bunn says that when the games were placed on hold, Sony determined that resources within the company should be allocated more to enhancing other major first party titles that were near completion or releasing in the following year of 2009. The first Uncharted game had just released in late 2007, and that game would lead into a major Sony franchise. However, the first Uncharted’s existence was such that Sony “already had a third-person action game in the stable.”

Much like the first The Getaway game, Eight Days was a title that Sony had been assigning development resources to for years, so it had already cost Sony a lot of money. At the time of the Eight Days’ being placed on hold, Sony had already calculated a figure for how much it would take to finish making the game – about one more year’s worth, per Bunn. And in their calculations, Sony had factored in their expectations for how large the PlayStation 3’s userbase would be a year after release – likely affected by the high initial cost of the system.

“At the time tie-in for a very good game was about ten per cent of the user base. They said we needed to be two or three times above that to be able to make a profit.”

It is clearly an exceedingly tall order for the game to land that well, even if the developers had the ambition to match the demand. Bunn, who designed the game’s opening level, said that his goal was to make it “as good as something you would see”, and he was incredibly happy and proud of both his work and the efforts of his co-workers.

As for other elements of planned game design, it would take place in eight US states – with the promo trailer taking place in Arizona, and the player’s experience would reflect the time in the real world – midnight in-game when the player is playing at midnight, for example. A key part of the narrative design of the game is that there are two storylines – one belonging to a “good” character and the other belonging to a “bad” character. The good character is pursuing a mob group after they kidnap his son, while the bad character seeks revenge on that same mob group. The two characters’ targeting of that group eventually leads to them working together later on. Bunn, in his interview, stated that the game was supposed to have “big cinematic scenes”, “driviing sections,” “duck and cover style gameplay” – an involved action game, and says that there would be much to impress game players if they had ever seen what was worked on.

And that concludes this look back on Eight Days. Shuhei Yoshida said in his aforementioned interview that there are many projects that are started and not finished – a clear reality of the gaming world. Nevertheless, Eight Days was, and is, a title with a lot of potential. Tell us what you think of Eight Days’ promotional trailer, and what we’ve shown about its development circumstances. With the newest God of War game releasing to great reception, and the Uncharted series still continuing, though with Nathan Drake’s story concluded – where does something like Eight Days fit in today’s gaming landscape? With Sony London’s portfolio during the PlayStation 4 generation much quieter than it had been in the past, it would be great to see them return to more active development.

Eight Days was a PS3 game that was being developed by SCE London Studio and was expected to be an action-adventure title that, predictably took place over eight days. The map was also expected to be one of, if not the biggest in a PS3 game, as it was supposed to span eight different states. The title was also said to have a true to life internal clock, which means that if you played the game at night, it would also be night in the game world, if it was dawn, it would be dawn in the game.

In 2008, Sony put what appears to be as close to a permanent hold on the game as there is, saying the fact that it didn’t have an online mode was a big part of the lack of interest in finishing it, according to PressA2Join. While Sony has said it likes the concept of the game, and the title hasn’t actually been cancelled, this is the first we’ve seen of Eight Days for several years.

Via, Neogaf.

You’d be forgotten for having forgotten – after all, this was yet another addition to a long line of PlayStation games that Sony announces, but that are then promptly forgotten – but Eight Days seemed to be a promising third person action shooter when Sony announced it back in 2006.

It has been nine years since then. The PlayStation 3 has been succeeded by the PlayStation 4, and Sony has announced multiple new franchises since then, most of which have gone on to release and become successes- everything from Uncharted, inFamous, Resistance, LittleBigPlanet, The Order, and more.

And what about Eight Days itself? The game had been on hold since 2009- and now it appears as though it will be on hold forever. Sony has officially lost the trademark for the IP as of today. This appears to be because “the registrant did not file an acceptable declaration under Section.”

I want to say Sony just forgot to file the right forms – after all, this wouldn’t even be the first time they have done that – but something tells me that this game, which is now so old that most people don’t even remember it’s announcement, is just dead.

So if you are one of those who were waiting? Well, er, sorry?

I have to admit, I was looking forward to this game, but alas! Seems like I won’t be able to play this game this gen. Richard Bunn, an ex-Sony employee, who worked on the game, let out some juicy details about the game to Eurogamer. The game along with Getaway 3 was put on hold to fund Eyepet and the likes, for reasons unknown.

The impressive looking third-person shooter was unveiled at Sony E3 press conference, and Phil Harrison, ex-president of Sony WWS really put this game on a pedestal.

 It was going to have online co-op,” said Bunn. The entire concept behind the game was based around buddy gameplay. Imagine Uncharted, where you have two  Nathan Drakes, and you can cover swap between each other and chuck ammo between each other. That was pretty much the game.

We fully intended to have online co-op support. No multiplayer, but online co-op. We definitely didn’t have any plans to do multiplayer modes. The game was looking spectacular,” Bunn continued. “A lot of what was shown off publicly had a bit of a mixed review. But what was going on in-house at the time was looking quite spectacular.

I designed a new opening level for them. My goal there was to make the opening level every bit as good as something you would see in a cinematic game. We had that fully playable in prototype form and it was jaw dropping. It was exceedingly good. All of the other level designers on the team were doing great work.

You can check out the E3 2006 gameplay video below. Please tell us in the comments section as to how you feel about this decision from Sony. You can read more about the game here.

1. Similar animations and physics:

The PlayStation 3 is a power house. A game like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has raised many questions that whether developers are able to use the PlayStation 3’s power to the maximum. But having said that Uncharted 2 is one of the most stunning looking video games this generation and it was developed by a first party developer of Sony. Eight Days will obviously be developed (or is under development) by SCEE, so its no brainer that Sony might actually ask for help from Naughty Dog after what they achieved with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The PlayStation 3 is still in its third year and I still believe there is a lot of potential left and I don’t think that Uncharted 2 maxed out the PlayStation 3. Well it might have been close but not a 100 percent.

If SCEE can achieve superior animations and character modeling; better than what Uncharted 2 was able to do with Eight Days, than we are in for a major treat. If you look closely at the video above, the animations of Nathan Drake and the protagonist in Eight Days are very similar. Of course the animations are bit bland in Eight Days since this its a footage very early from development.

2. Gameplay

Cover system and shooting mechanics are very much similar as well

Uncharted’s strongest point was the gun play mechanics and the puzzles in the game. Nathan Drake can take cover, pop out and shoot. He was also able to go in “Over the shoulder” view and shoot enemies. Now again if you saw the first video, the protagonist in Eight Days can take cover (with very similar animations), pop out and shoot out, and also switch to over the shoulder view. Well like Nathan Drake, the protagonist can also jump over obstacles, shoot blindly and change positions from cover to cover.

3. Jam Pack Action:

Update: This video is no longer available.

Just like Uncharted 2, the action is expected to be intense in Eight Days. If you see the video above, the truck just rams in to a number of cars, which really showcases the power of the PlayStation 3 once again ( and this is a pre production video!) and ends with a spectacular explosion. Also in the first video two unknown characters jump off to a huge barricade which is than lifted by a helicopter and crashed on the roof top of the building. So just like Uncharted 2, Hollywood style action can be expected.

4. Co-op Option:

Co-op action in Eight Days!

Wow! This looks like a complete rip off. The two guys in the first video, fight off hordes of enemies, and they seem to help each other which is obvious in a co-op mode. Now for people who have played Uncharted 2 very well know that there were times in the game where you were accompanied by Chloe, Sully or Elena. And now the old footage of Eight Days also indicates the same thing. You are going to be accompanied by someone throughout the game.

What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments section below.