On the heels of a cancellation of a live service title, Bend Studio has let roughly 30 percent of its staff go-which means that 40 employees have been laid off. This re-orientation in focus to a yet-unannounced title strongly impacted the morale of gamers, who really wanted to see Days Gone 2 come into production sooner.
The brief news flew into the Twittersphere with a viral tweet; gamers took over the comments with their outrage. Sony was blamed by many for shoving live service games down their throats and Bend Studio ought to have been able to continue working on single-player games like Days Gone. NeverJayDead distilled the feelings very succinctly: “Dang they should’ve just been working on Days Gone 2 this whole time. I feel like Sony is just throwing up bricks this gen.”
@Smelck1 followed a similar train of thought: “Days Gone is a fabulous video game. It tells an awesome story and is fun to play. Hate that Bend (who are crazy talented like Naughty Dog) have been wasting time on live service.” Then, a little more widely @vermingray added: “We have enough live service games. Please for the love of God give us a good story game.”
Sony’s live service ambitions have been questioned for a long time. They used to claim to launch 10 live service titles by the year 2026. But after a series of cancellations-Including this project at the Bend studio and the rumblings of the canceled multiplayer mode for the Last of Us-these recent uncertain signs are making the question arise once more. LethalCadence deemed it “catastrophic mismanagement,” pointing out: for live service games to succeed, they almost always need to be multi-platform, a move Sony seems to skirt full throttle.
Well, if the Days Gone fan base could be left wondering what could have been. The somewhat stormy-though-still-being-great cult 2019 open-world zombie game has had prayers for another installment, which is now the furthest thing that could happen. Zille_Man summed up this feeling for some: “Well rip Days Gone 2,” plus an emoji whose tears represent the collective disappointment.
Not much is known about Bend Studio’s next project. The studio has confirmed that they are working on a new project, but whether it is another single-player adventure or something completely different is something that’s yet to be determined. And in the meantime, this layoff is yet another warning sign about how unpredictable the games industry can be-rarely are the corporate vision and player desire aligned.
Honestly? One cannot help but feel for the devs caught in the middle. Making games is hard enough behind closed doors without the battles of shifting corporate mandates. Rolls eyes. Hopefully, Bend Studio lands on solid grounds-and, maybe, just maybe, they get to revisit the Days Gone universe one day.
