Bend Studio, the company behind Days Gone, has distanced itself from game director John Garvin after he makes some controversial comments. Unlike many first-party PlayStation games, Days Gone reviews were mixed at the time of its release, and despite the open world zombie game being a commercial success, Sony ultimately decided to pass on producing a sequel.Days Gone director John Garvin played a key role at Bend Studio for many years, leading the charge on the studio's popular Syphon Filter series and serving as director for the handheld games Resistance: Retribution and Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Garvin left the studio after the launch of Days Gone, and has since formed a new studio called Liithos that is making an original IP called Ashfall. However, Garvin has found himself in hot water for some comments he's made about Days Gone since leaving Bend Studio.Recently, when talking about why Days Gone reviews were not as high as other PlayStation exclusive games, Garvin blamed its technical issues, reviewers who "couldn't be bothered to actually play the game," and "woke reviewers" who didn't like that the main character was a "gruff white biker looking at his date's ass." These comments caused quite a bit of controversy, to the point where Garvin has since set his Twitter account to private. While Garvin hasn't worked at Bend Studio for years, the studio has issued a statement in response to his controversial comments.
Bend Studio's statement distances itself from Garvin's comments, saying that his views do not reflect the views of the team. It also says that Bend is proud of the work that was done on Days Gone and is "humbled" by the support of the game's fans.
While it's possible that a Days Gone sequel will materialize eventually, it's clear that such a project is not in the cards for the immediate future. With Bend Studio's Days Gone 2 pitch rejected by Sony, the studio is instead setting its sights on a new project. Bend Studio's next game has yet to be revealed to the public, but some interesting details about it have been announced. Bend Studio's next game is expected to be a new IP that will utilize the open world elements used in Days Gone, but with multiplayer added into the mix. Bend Studio's games have featured multiplayer in the past, but this will be its first crack at an open world multiplayer game, so it will definitely be interesting to see how it all turns out.
Days Gone is available now for PC and PS4.
