Days Gone’s director claims Sony ‘made it feel like a disappointment’ despite ‘outselling Ghost of Tsushima’

The director of first-party PS4 game Days Gone has accused Sony of making its developer “feel like it was a big disappointment”, despite selling around 10 million copies.

Jeff Ross, who left Bend Studio in 2020 after some 20 years at the company, made the claim on Twitter following Wednesday’s announcement that fellow PlayStation exclusive Ghost of Tsushima has now sold 8 million copies.

Ross claimed that Days Gone has actually outsold the much-praised Sucker Punch adventure, despite PlayStation’s internal teams allegedly projecting a less positive impression of its performance.

“At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies,” the director wrote, in response to the GoT news. “It’s since gone on to sell more, and then a million+ on Steam. Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment.”

Days Gone was released for PC via Steam on May 18.

Former PlayStation America boss Shawn Layden was one of those who responded to Ross’s post, writing: “Congratulations… Always thought it was an ambitious and impressive title. The HORDES! It was a real privilege to be there on Launch Day. Will not forget.”

Speaking publicly last year, Days Gone’s director confirmed that he was at one point working on a Days Gone 2 pitch but, due to an NDA with his former employer, couldn’t confirm if it had been cancelled.

However, he has since suggested this is indeed the case. On Wednesday, he responded to a fan: “I was planning on building on top of the original for a kick-ass sequel. Even the first Killzone got a 70 on Metacritic, but the sequel roared back with a 91. You gotta crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run.”

Last year a Bloomberg report first suggested that PlayStation had rejected plans for a sequel to Days Gone.

“Although the first game had been profitable, its development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed, so a Days Gone 2 wasn’t seen as a viable option,” Bloomberg claimed.

Instead, journalist Jason Schreier wrote that one team at the studio was assigned to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game, while a second group was assigned to work on a new Uncharted game with supervision from Naughty Dog.

Because Bend’s developers feared they might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, the report claimed that the studio’s leadership asked to be taken off the Uncharted project and are now working on a new game of their own.

Sony Interactive Entertainment later confirmed that Bend Studio is working on a new IP and “building on the deep open-world systems that they developed with Days Gone”.