Days Gone was an ambitious zombie horror survival game from Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was initially released as a PlayStation exclusive until it got ported to PC. The scope and scale of the game were quite large by today’s standards, and director John Garvin’s work speaks for itself.
As part of the PlayStation Studios banner, other creatives from different studios can pitch in for an assist, but Garvin clarified that every narrative decision was made by him and him alone.
Days Gone Director Claims He Wrote the Entire Script Alone
John Garvin is back at it again, as he expressed his massive disappointment with how his game turned out to be and hinted at how he believed Sony viewed Days Gone in general. Garvin pointed out that it was Sony’s aggressive approach toward entering the live-service gaming domain that was a major factor in refocusing Bend Studio to work on an original multiplayer title themselves.
Nah, I think Sony considered it a failure, at the time. And now the industry is shifting to online games as a service, and Days Gone, like all my games, is a single player narrative experience; besides, without me or Jeff, would you want a sequel? https://t.co/d3yFKONWs1
— John Garvin (@John_Garvin) April 9, 2024
The director later took full credit for writing the entire script of the game and refused to acknowledge the work of writer Anne Toole. Toole also worked on a fellow PlayStation first-party title, Ghost of Tsushima, which was released a year later and critically acclaimed by both fans and critics.
Well, to be clear, the narrative was all me… all 12,000 pages of script, but I wouldn’t do a sequel without Jeff, who guided the gameplay, they go hand in hand
— John Garvin (@John_Garvin) April 9, 2024
Perhaps the director forgot to mention Toole and other writers as he was writing the post, and his general oversight for the entirety of the game has made him a much more powerful figure during production.
This could also imply that other writers on the game had little to no contribution at all or a possibility that a good chunk of their ideas was rendered unusable or ignored altogether because it did not fit with Garvin and Ross’s vision for the game. Toole wrote earlier parts of the game and perhaps had nothing to do beyond the first few chapters, which led to Garvin’s statement.
Ghost Of Tsushima and Days Gone Are Both Great
While both games generally share the same open-world trope where there are multiple regions for players to explore and are full of side activities, Sucker Punch Productions reused the same formula, which, combined with the gameplay, is a potent mix for a perfect game.
Other developers, like Team Ninja, have taken some inspiration from it for its original game, Rise of the Ronin, but managed to find its footing along the way without being compared to an existing game or a fellow PlayStation title.
Days Gone had the unfair advantage of being released in an unstable condition, which led critics and fans to believe the game was nothing special and be reluctant to finish it. The game’s finale even promised a potential sequel until Sony refused to greenlight the title and went somewhere else.
Garvin may have omitted Toole from his statement by mistake or out of bitterness. It’s a pity to see creatives sidelined after one debacle.
What are your thoughts about Garvin’s statement? Let us know in the comments below!
