Bend Studio has been relatively quiet since Days Gone came out in 2019. However, the studio hasn’t been idle, with Sony reportedly investing more than $250 million in its next game.
Sony reportedly spending $250 million on Days Gone studio’s next game
No one knows exactly what Bend Studio is working on, including Days Gone director Jeff Ross. However, as MP1st noted, he knows that Sony is spending quite a bit on it. “Whatever it is,” Ross said on Twitter, “they’ve spent at least a quarter of a billion dollars on it. I’m no businessman, but that’s crazy given the fact Sony didn’t want to fund a DG sequel for the bargain basement price of a hundred fifty million (insane numbers all around, tbh).”
As for whether Bend Studio’s new game is Days Gone 2, Ross does not seem to think so. He alleges that PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst “hated” Days Gone and was biased against it because Sony already had a successful zombie game in The Last of Us. Granted, Ross may be letting his often-expressed frustration color his perceptions a bit. It is worth noting that Ross left Bend Studio in 2020, so his knowledge of the new game’s budget is likely second-hand.
Still, while $250 million is quite a lot of money, it’s not unprecedented for AAA games. A report from 2023 indicates that Rockstar is spending about as much on Grand Theft Auto 6. Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard merger also revealed that Activision spent over $300 Million developing Call of Duty. Thus, the quarter-billion Sony’s spending on Bend Studio’s new game seems to be a symptom of ballooning development costs.
