Days Gone has been in the news quite a bit for a two-year-old game with an average score of 72. The post-apocalyptic open-world game recently rode its way onto PC this week just over a month after a damning report that revealed how Sony chose to not greenlight the sequel. Fans were dismayed at this alleged premature cancelation, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. And according to protagonist Deacon St. John actor Sam Witwer, those who want Days Gone 2 should speak with their wallets and pick up the new PC version.
Double dipping for a chance for Days Gone 2
Witwer spoke briefly about the prospect of Days Gone 2 on a recent Reddit AMA timed around the launch of the PC port of the first game. User MathBlastMePapi briefly brought up the fan-driven rallies for a sequel before asking Witwer how those fans could best show Sony that a sequel would be “worth it.”
“I’d say buy the game on PC!” he said. “Nothing talks more than sales.”
Witwer didn’t speak much more about the ill-fated sequel. One user asked if he could talk about the rumored Days Gone 2 pitch that Sony denied and Witwer just responded with “Yeah.. not really.” coupled with a smiley face. Another asked what he’d like to see in a possible second game and he replied vaguely with, “Oh, ya know!” Most of Witwer’s exhaustive list of answers were in relation to his time making Days Gone and his multiple roles in various Star Wars projects, which include Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Clone Wars, and both Force Unleashed video games.
Sony’s reported reluctance with Days Gone 2
Boosted sales may help get Sony’s attention, but it might not be that simple. According to the Bloomberg report that dove into the issues within Sony and Bend Studio, Days Gone was indeed profitable, but “development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed.” Bend Studio’s last full game, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, released in late 2011 for the Vita’s launch in Japan while Days Gone didn’t come out until early 2019, almost at the end of the PS4’s lifespan. Since the article was framed around Sony’s reluctance to fund games that aren’t The Last of Us-sized epics, “profitable” might not always be enough for Sony.
Those sales might need to be at full price, too. According to VGC‘s transcription of David Jaffe’s interview with former Days Gone Writer and Director John Garvin, people need to pay “fucking full price” if they want to “[support] the developers directly.” He also stated that players who grab the game on sale can’t “complain if a game doesn’t get a sequel.”
Days Gone was prone to going on sale multiple times, too. According to sale-tracking website PSPrices, Days Gone’s price dipped below MSRP quite frequently on PSN, getting discounted about every few weeks just a handful of months after its initial launch. Sony has even given away Days Gone a couple of different ways, too. It was both part of the PlayStation Plus Collection for PS5 owners as well as one of the games included in April 2021’s PlayStation Plus lineup.
Sony has not made any hints towards making Days Gone 2. The aforementioned report states that Bend Studio is also currently working on a new IP and it probably isn’t likely that Sony would hand Days Gone to another team in the meantime. But the game appears to be selling well on Steam, even besting the well-received Mass Effect Legendary Edition during launch on Steam’s top-selling games. According to SteamDB, it also peaked at 18,287 users concurrently on Steam. For reference of other Sony first-party on PC, Death Stranding peaked at 32,515 users while Horizon Zero Dawn hit its peak at 56,557 players. All three games also launched simultaneously on the Epic Games Store as well, but that data is not public.
