Former Sony Bend Studio director, Jeff Ross, has confirmed Jason Schreier’s report of a Days Gone 2 pitch, revealing that there were plans for the sequel to feature a shared universe and co-op play.
In a podcast with God of War creator David Jaffe, Ross made reserved remarks about Schreier’s report, and understandably so. However, he made it clear that his departure from Bend Studio didn’t have anything to do with the pitch’s rejection. Ross further confirmed that Bend Studio was, at one point, assigned to help Naughty Dog.
For games where you have to sell four or five million copies just to break even… there’s got to be a confidence in the return, because Sony doesn’t have the cash that Microsoft does and they’ve got to use it very intelligently and they’ve got to stay focused on a diverse portfolio.
Days Gone has sold more copies than every game the studio has ever made combined. So it’s successful in that way, and in the community and player response. But the critics… yeah, that was the Normandy Beach. It was a bloodbath.
According to Ross, Days Gone developers wanted co-op play since the beginning, but “obviously you have to make concessions for what you’re not going to be able to do.” “It would’ve been a secondary mode if we’d have done it in the first one, or even in another one,” he added. “I wouldn’t have complicated the main narrative… because that’s really what we’re good at.”
Ross now works for Mortal Kombat studio, NetherRealm.
