Days Gone Director Reveals First Details on Cancelled Sequel
Last week, Days Gone director Jeff Ross made headlines when he compared sales for the game with another PlayStation exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima. When Sucker Punch Productions celebrated the latter game's eight million units sold, Ross took to Twitter to express surprise over PlayStation turning down a sequel to Days Gone, despite similar sales. In a new interview with USA Today, Ross opened up about his plans for the sequel, and where things would have gone had PlayStation believed in the IP. The sequel would have once again focused on Deacon, particularly his relationship with Sarah.
"Yeah, they're back together, but maybe they're not happy. Well, what can we do with that? Okay, we were married before the apocalypse, but what about the future," Ross tells USA Today. "We would have kept the heavy, strong narrative. We would have kept the bike, obviously. And I think we would have expanded the tone a little bit in a more technical direction, kind of like, 'Alright, now we have all this NERO tech – what can we do with it?' The tone would have expanded one ring outward towards some of the new reality. I think this would have been a little bit more – I don't want to say Avengers, but something where the player had resources, he had some sort of the remnants of whatever the government had."
In the interview, Ross is upfront about Days Gone's issues, and things he wasn't pleased with about the game. However, the director points out that many beloved franchises had "basic" first entries, citing Batman: Arkham Asylum and the first Uncharted as examples. Follow-ups for both of those franchises allowed the developers a chance to further develop those worlds. Clearly that was the plan for Ross with Days Gone, and there were many ambitious ideas the director and Bend Studio were planning, including swimming and "more varied behaviors" for animals, enemies, and allies. With all the attention Days Gone has been getting lately, maybe the developer will get a chance to revisit that world, one day!
Days Gone is available now on PlayStation 4, and PC. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.
How do you feel about PlayStation's treatment of Days Gone? Are you mad the game didn't get a sequel? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!