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[Draugoth]

Jeff Ross Days Gone Game Director said there was an internal rumor that CD Projekt Red was interested in purchasing the Days Gone IP from Sony.

The participation of Jeff Ross and John Garvin (who were founders, directors and leaders of Bend Studio) in a recent David Jaffe podcast has brought to light several antecedents related to the development of Days gone and the non-production of its sequel.

The former head of the Sony-owned studio and the director of the open-world adventure revealed during the podcast that a CD Projekt RED attempted to acquire an IP of Sony's Days Gone, but a PlayStation was not at all willing to sell the intellectual property , the assets and not even the concept of the game or even the granting of intellectual property under a possible license for other uses to outside companies.

Garvin and Ross report that "they can't confirm this claim" and it's not really clear whether CD Projekt RED actually tried to acquire intellectual property or whether perhaps CD Projekt thought of a possible deal to bring the game to GOG or perhaps to be able to develop a sequel or spin-off in collaboration with PlayStation Studios.

 

[Flabagast]

Yeah so basically there is no info here

 

[CheeseCake]

I don't think Sony really cares or wants to/in doing any sort of deal with CD Projekt Red, especially after the fiasco that was Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles...

Still, money is money. Who knows.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

This is...random as hell.

 

[Draugoth]

This is...random as hell.

Yup. But considering Sony themselves considered Days Gone a failure, i wouldnt be surprised if there were attempts to hand over the IP.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's the game director, so I guess that's a slightly high quality rumor.

But honestly, doesn't make much sense. It's not like the lore is so deep in Days Gone that they need the IP to make a game nearly exactly like that.

 

[kuncol02]

This is...random as hell.

CDPRed was created because CDProject wanted to publish Dark Aliance in Poland, but PC version didn't existed and Black Isle said them that if they want to publish it they will need to port it themself.
Whole idea was quickly shut down when Black Isle was closed so CDPR decided to make their own game (Witcher)

 

[rolandss]

This guy really believes he made a masterpiece. I get he put a lot of effort into it, but it was a real mediocre game.

 

[lh032]

CDPR ACQUISITION BY SONY CONFIRMED.

 

[MHubert]

Yup. But considering Sony themselves considered Days Gone a failure, i wouldnt be surprised if there were attempts to hand over the IP.

The fact that Sony considers a title that sold a shit ton and loved by fans a failure because of a metacritic score is just sad really.

 

[Interfectum]

This guy really believes he made a masterpiece. I get he put a to of effort into it, but it was a real mediocre game.

Yup. Game was okay but I feel like the internet is retroactivity trying to build it up to greatness. No doubt this is tied to gamer's disdain for the gaming media which I empathize with... but this battle aint it.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

They fixed Cyberwank2069 yet?

 

[Infested Goblin]

Wait what

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

CDPRed was created because CDProject wanted to publish Dark Aliance in Poland, but PC version didn't existed and Black Isle said them that if they want to publish it they will need to port it themself.
Whole idea was quickly shut down when Black Isle was closed so CDPR decided to make their own game (Witcher)

Thank you for this insight. I had no idea about all of this!

 

[MrFunSocks]

Highly doubtful. There’s nothing special about the IP. It’s not a big franchise that people love. They could make an exact ripoff game if they want without buying the IP.

 

[assurdum]

I guess CDPR was impressed to the state of Days are gone at launch, the IP fit perfectly with their vision of game development.

 

[hello505]

How random, Days Gone wouldn't sell half as good if it wasn't exclusive.

 

[Gameplaylover]

I don't believe it. Why would someone buy yet another Zombie game with best of Ubisoft mechanics. The only special thing about that game were the Hordes and you don't need to buy an ip for that.

 

[MHubert]

Highly doubtful. There’s nothing special about the IP. It’s not a big franchise that people love. They could make an exact ripoff game if they want without buying the IP.

I mean most people would agree that the game is mediocre, but you cant deny that a lot of folks like it.

 

[yurinka]

The fact that Sony considers a title that sold a shit ton and loved by fans a failure because of a metacritic score is just sad really.

Yup. But considering Sony themselves considered Days Gone a failure, i wouldnt be surprised if there were attempts to hand over the IP.

The directors of the game said Sony was very supportive with them not only with Days Gone (they had very good words for the Sony guys who worked with them: Scott Rohde, Shawn Layden and Shuhei Yoshida) and during the decades they did work there. It was the Studio Manager of Bend who gave them bad feedback of reviews and sales, and also during development. That studio manager is the one who blocked the Days Gone 2 pitch and never sent it to Sony. What was sent to Sony from Bend was the pitch of the new IP, which got greenlighted.

Sony gave them budget to continue fixing and adding new stuff after launch. After these over 8M copies sold in PS4 (gamstat did stop working when PSN changed to add PS5 at the PS5 release, so these 8M don't include PS Plus or PS Collection) the game was included with a selection of the best games of the generation in the PS Collection for PS5 and gave them budget to port it on PC. Later was included in PS Plus.

If Sony woud have considered it a failure it wouldn't have spent a cent on it after release, so it isn't the case. It was the studio manager of Bend Studio who gave them bad feedback about DG1 and blocked the DG2 pitch, which wasn't sent to Sony and didn't give them visibility of anything.

I mean most people would agree that the game is mediocre, but you cant deny that a lot of folks like it.

When released in PS4 had some bugs and performance issues, that got fixed after launch. The reviewers of the PS4 version didn't play with the day one patch, so pretty likely had more bugs and performance issues. Plus some woke reviewers had an issue with having a white heterosexual main character and other ones didn't finish it so didn't past the long and slow start, before the game starts to shine. It got a 71MC (72 in OC) in PS4 and 76MC in PC.

The PC version has 93% positive reviews in Steam and 8.6 in Metacritic, and the PS4 version a 8.4. And it sold ~9M in PS4 until PS5 launch + PC (so adding PS4+PS5 sales since PS5 release it may be over 10M copies, not counting PS Plus and PS Collection units).

Looking at these numbers I'd say most people would agree that the game is good and that this game is one of these cases when there is a big difference between the player perception and the gaming media reviewers perception.

This guy really believes he made a masterpiece. I get he put a to of effort into it, but it was a real mediocre game.

As creator he's attached to his work. Like most players (looking at user reviews), he thinks the game is good but not great and that has some flaws, and that some things are somewhat outdated because they started to make it around 2013 or so.

 

[Kerotan]

The fact that Sony considers a title that sold a shit ton and loved by fans a failure because of a metacritic score is just sad really.

The real reason is it didn't sell enough at full price. It's mostly about revenue.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

No they didn’t. That doesn’t make any f*cking sense.

 

[Skifi28]

The game hasn't had so many threads about it since launch. I'll never understand the fascination, it was an OK game in a sea of ok games.

 

[MHubert]

The real reason is it didn't sell enough at full price. It's mostly about revenue.

Yeah makes sense. Its kinda crazy that 10mil+ throughout the life of a new ip can be considered as not good enough.

 

[MrFunSocks]

I mean most people would agree that the game is mediocre, but you cant deny that a lot of folks like it.

There’s nothing special or unique about the IP though, that’s what I’m saying. Generic white guy on a motorbike in post apocalyptic zombie land. Anyone can make a carbon copy of that, no need to spend a cent buying an IP that even the owners don’t want to continue.

 

[Amiga]

They could just make a post apocalyptical Witcher spinoff.

 

[DeepEnigma]

There’s nothing special or unique about the IP though, that’s what I’m saying. Generic white guy on a motorbike in post apocalyptic zombie land. Anyone can make a carbon copy of that, no need to spend a cent buying an IP that even the owners don’t want to continue.

The horde meta systems are pretty unique, stop fronting.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

The fact that Sony considers a title that sold a shit ton and loved by fans a failure because of a metacritic score is just sad really.

This is nonsense. The game was profitable at best. After a 7 year development, 1 year post release fixes, and being heavily discounted within a month.

The difference between Ghost of Tsushima and Days Gone is that Ghost of Tsushima was a financial success.

Sure if it was a critical success along with its merely profitable outcome. They might fool themselves into a sequel. But it’s smarter to give the studio another attempt at a banger.

If the Men in Black rumor is true. Playstation probably convinced Sony to give this Bend another decent budget to revive a Sony Pictures IP.

 

[marcincz]

Jeff Rose next week revelations:
- Days Gone 2 was one week before release date, but Ryan canceled
- DG sold 15 mln units
- Sony sold Naughty Dog to Nintendo, but forgot about it
- GTA8 will be exclusive from Sony Bend
- God of War was his idea...
- ...Gran Turismo too

Genius!

 

[Tommi84]

So the company that screwed them over refunds for CP2077 wants to buy something from Sony?

 

[Fake]

davidjaffe talk with us.

This guy really believes he made a masterpiece. I get he put a to of effort into it, but it was a real mediocre game.

Enlighten us. What is a masterpiece? Without using metacritic or Goty please, unless you like people to tell you what is a masterpiece.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The horde meta systems are pretty unique, stop fronting.

I liked the horde in Days Gone but I think World War Z did it better, had a more, "nice" feeling to it. Ofc WWZ is more gamey while DG feels more realistic but still.

 

[Fake]

Very depressing the consequences of Sony following more Metacritic scores than sales. Created a culture of folks that just for every conversation use a metacritic score.

Just look at the Jeff Ross tweet, loads of guys using Metacritic screenshot as some sort of counter argument. 'No. u ArE wRoNg'.

Do you guys shop on metacritic by any chance?

 

[remember_spinal]

They are clout chasing like crazy

 

[Kokoloko85]

This guy really believes he made a masterpiece. I get he put a to of effort into it, but it was a real mediocre game.

This.

It was the only 1st party game I didnt bother finishing. Combat was lame and it just wasnt in the same league as Sony’s other games like God of War, Bloodborne, TLOU2, Uncharted, Horizon, GOT, Spiderman etc.

And sales wise, people forget the game dropped in price quick, otherwise I doubt it would have those numbers.

Other than the story which Im not sure about, it really was average

 

[Hugare]

This is fucking hilarious

Why would CDPR be interested? Because of Days Gone deep lore of bicycles and zombies?

Buying the Witcher license makes sense. Cyberpunk makes sense.

Freaking Days Gone?

These guys are delusional

 

[Kokoloko85]

davidjaffe talk with us.



Enlighten us. What is a masterpiece? Without using metacritic or Goty please, unless you like people to tell you what is a masterpiece.

Ill tell you what wasnt a masterpiece… Days gone lol.

It just wasnt close to games like God of War, Bloodborne, TLOU, Uncharted etc. And it wasnt even close to games like Horizon, GOT or Spiderman. The combat was not good and the quality at launch and after wasnt all that either

 

[remember_spinal]

I’m actually annoyed that the false information of the game selling 8 million is now out in the cultural zeitgeist to be constantly referenced now when other games sell 8 mill.

Complete and total bullshit number he plucked from the internet like some forum dweeb. But now its always gonna be Days gone sold 8 mill, no big deal

 

[Fake]

Ill tell you what wasnt a masterpiece… Days gone lol.

But he think is. You tell him that, not me.

Is like, IDK, people have different opinions.

Shocking, I know.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Yeah makes sense. Its kinda crazy that 10mil+ throughout the life of a new ip can be considered as not good enough.

Maybe beause it didnt sell 10+ million at Regular price…

 

[Warnen]

So they want a game with a worse reputation then Cyberpunk…

 

[Kokoloko85]

But he think is. You tell him that, not me.

Is like, IDK, people have different opinions.

Shocking, I know.

I think the creator got the memo when the scores came out and Sony didnt give the go ahead of for a sequel.
Im a big Playstation fan but it really was an average game

The person you quoted thought it was mediocre also

 

[remember_spinal]

Since i feel like enough people here didn’t catch the update from the last thread

Jeff Ross said on the podcast that the sale numbers are based on gamstat (an old website which uses trophy data to estimate sales figures), and it seems the PC numbers are from SteamSpy. He never had access to executive level sales data.

 

[hemo memo]

Yeah no. Days Gone is your generic zombie story game that I am sure Cyberpunk can do better.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Are CD Projekt Red just gonna be "that studio that makes bad games and buys bad IPs to make more bad games but it's cool because the Witcher 3," from now on? Wizard if so.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Just release an open-world zombie game called Months Gone. There you go. a sequel. Problem Solved. :/

No need to buy shit from the buffoon Jim

Man.. so many IQ points it's dripping out...

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Well at least we know Sony cares about the IP some. Hopefully we'll get a sequel in the future, and not that co-op pitch they gave.

 

[LaughingStock]

Why would someone pay for a generic zombie game IP? Just create your own.

 

[Fake]

I think the creator got the memo when the scores came out and Sony didnt give the go ahead of for a sequel.
Im a big Playstation fan but it really was an average game

None against people proud of their first job. As I mention, follow Jeff retweet and you gonna see loads of people agreeing with their Killzone theory.
Killzone would be left to death after that terrible metacritic score, but their sequel get a >9. Imagine giving up an IP because was receive bad.

The person you quoted thought it was mediocre also

And? You gonna want me to find everyone that agree with me as well? Are you looking for some sort of list war?

 

[EverydayBeast]

The best things Days Gone offers is world building (Feels larger than it really is, it's Oregon, the motorcycle, the forests, caves etc.) and yes it’s unfortunate the reviews it got, the recent criticism surrounding it’s sequel but let’s be honest Sony looks at bend studios, days gone as a 4th, or 5th option after god of war, sackboy, Astro, GT, aloy etc.