Sony Bend released its open-world action-adventure title Days Gone in 2019 and although the game saw mixed reactions, many hoped Bend Studio would bring a sequel. However, Bend Studio announced that it has started working on a new IP, and all the hopes for the sequel were crushed.
However, it seems like Bend Studio considered making a sequel to the game. This news comes from the massive Insomniac leak that leaked confidential information about the company and several other PlayStation studios including Bend and its plans for Days Gone.
Sony Bend Was Working on a Days Gone Sequel Once
The massive Insomniac Games leak revealed a ton of confidential about several upcoming Insomniac titles and more. The leak included a presentation slide of Bend Studio suggesting that the studio was once working on the Days Gone sequel, but it never materialized. As per the presentation slide, the studio was working on early prototypes of the sequel and a new Uncharted title.
Bend was looking to pitch the sequel to Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios along with the Uncharted game and would have continued working on one of the games after his approval. The slide mentions “Which version has Hermen seen” and there is also a mention of budgets and new hires to work on these games.
Sony Bend hired 30 employees to work on the sequel and 80 employees to work on Uncharted but there is also a mention of the change in hiring plans which the studio wanted to inform Christ Reese about. However, the studio did not move forward with any of these games as it announced in 2022 that it is working on a new IP but did not give any official release date or title.
Jeff Ross, the former game director at Bend Studio took to X/Twitter earlier this year right after PlayStation Showcase and said that Days Gone 2 would have been released “a month ago if we’d have just stuck to our guns.” Ross replied to a user and said that the sequel is not coming now as “too much time has passed” and more than 90 people who worked on the game have left the studio.
Ross also added that Boozer would have been the main lead in the game, but Sony did not seem to care about the game as much as Bend did. He also mentioned that the game would have landed on PS5 at launch and would have been released for PC down the road. However, the IP to the game belongs to Sony so maybe one day there could be a sequel but that’s just speculation.
Although the exact reason behind the cancellation of the sequel was not known, it was attributed to the mixed reactions to the game and not-so-stellar sales. The Insomniac leaks also revealed the sales of Days Gone which sold around 7-8 million copies, but the sales mostly came after the price drops and not the original retail price and Sony wasn’t happy with it.
Bend Studio first announced the new IP saying that it is expanding the studio portfolio back in June 2021 and later again mentioned in June 2022 that it is currently working on the same new IP with a little more detail as it launched a new logo for the studio. Bend Studio said that the new IP would be based on open-world systems in Days Gone and will also include multiplayer but will have a new open world. It added that it would announce the IP when the time is right, but nothing is known yet.
It was recently reported that Bend is using the Decima engine of Horizon developer Guerrilla Games for the game and the ArtStation profile of concept artist Hung Nguybut. The game is scheduled to release so there could be an official announcement coming soon.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
