The director of Days Gone Jeff Ross has opened up on reports from late last week that a sequel to the open-world zombie adventure was indeed in the idea stage before his departure, but couldn’t confirm the fate of the project.
Speaking to fellow former Sony boss and God of War creator David Jaffe on the latter’s livestreamed podcast (as transcribed by Video Games Chronicle) Ross said that development studio Sony Bend’s pitch included “the idea of a shared universe with co-op play” — and, interestingly enough, was something the team had considered for the first game.
“We wanted co-op from the beginning [in Days Gone], 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. I wouldn’t have complicated the main narrative… because that’s really what we’re good at. That was the strength of the first title, so build on that and make it better.”
“But then take this world that you’ve built, and all these assets and systems, and repurpose them for some sort of similarly themed multiplayer version of this universe. So [it] would be with guys like Deacon trying to survive, building up a clubhouse or a crew. I think it would be fun to be in that world cooperatively and see what horde battles could be like.”
However, on the content of the report itself which alledged the project had been rejected by Sony, Ross couldn’t give much in the way of confirmation due to NDAs — though he did retweet the author of that report following his interview with Jaffe. He also denied that Bend was being positioned as a support studio to Naughty Dog on their rumoured, unannounced multiplayer project, but was unable to confirm or deny whether the Days Gone sequel was cancelled by Sony or not.
He did however, also state that his departure in December of last year was not related to the status of Days Gone 2, saying “It had nothing to do with the status of the sequel or anything else that the studio was doing. It just kind of got to the point where I realised that I’d peaked and I was probably not going to go any further.”
It looks as though for now, Days Gone will remain a one-and done. The game is currently available on PS Plus this month on PlayStation 4, and we definitely reccomend you get on that if you haven’t already.
Thanks to everyone who attended the podcast with Jaffe. I wish I could have been more forthright with some questions. Just remember @jasonschreier is a journalist who takes his craft seriously. And he has the luxury of being able to be more honest than I’m allowed. https://t.co/MCbvItFwvs
— Jeff Ross (@JakeRocket) April 11, 2021
