Will there be a Days Gone 2? Latest news and speculation

Yet, PlayStation clearly recognises how much fans love the game, with a film announced to be in production, although no news has been heard about this in a while.

After a recent tweet by the original game's director, there has never been more doubt about whether or not a sequel could arrive, so here is everything we know about Days Gone 2.

Will there be a Days Gone 2?

According to the first game's director, Days Gone will never see a sequel.

In a recent tweet referencing the above poster, the game's director, Jeff Ross, stated: "A lot of people still ask me if there will ever be a Days Gone sequel, so I submit this poster as evidence it will never happen".

The poster references plenty of characters from PlayStation's past, including long dormant characters like Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper and Cole MacGrath from the first two Infamous games.

Noticeably missing is Days Gone's generic protagonist Deacon St John, and this is clearly why Ross believes the series is dead.

This is a far cry away from what he said in 2021, where he was less definitive about whether or not there may be a sequel, leaving some hope to fans.

It's important to note Ross left Bend Studio, the developer behind Days Gone, in 2020, going on to work at both NetherRealm Studios and Crystal Dynamics. So, if it was to be developed, there's a chance he may not know.

In a report published by Bloomberg on 9th April 2021, well-connected games journalist Jason Schreier said: "Oregon-based Sony Bend, best known for the 2019 open-world action game Days Gone, tried unsuccessfully to pitch a sequel that year, according to people familiar with the proposal.

"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."

And then, on 11th April, the plot thickened. The director of Days Gone, Jeff Ross, appeared in a four-hour video on the YouTube channel of David Jaffe (director of the original God of War). Although Ross has left Sony Bend and now works at NetherRealm Studios, he could still know a lot about the fate of the Days Gone franchise.

In a wide-ranging conversation that reacted explicitly to Schreier's Bloomberg report, Ross told Jaffe: "I won't confirm the status of Days Gone 2. I don't think that that's clear to the public. I'm not gonna say one way or the other. I don't think it's publicly confirmed, what the status of it is. That's one of the things where I don't wanna be the guy to be the official source for whatever that is."

Ross went onto mention that: "The calculus for Sony at this point is… when a game like Days Gone started, we were 45 people, we were walking around asking how we could build an open-world game with 45 people, and the answer was, we grew. We changed our number from 45 to something like 120."

Growing the company in this way made the game a lot more expensive than originally planned. As Ross puts it, "There was a starting budget for Days Gone, which was big, but it’s not where we ended. We ended at a much higher number, and I think that number is then probably the starting point for the next one."

Bigger budgets mean bigger expectations, and in the words of Ross, "For games where you have to sell 4 of 5 million copies just to break even, there’s got to be a confidence in the return, because Sony doesn’t have the cash that Microsoft does and they’ve got to use it very intelligently, and they’ve got to stay focused on a diverse portfolio."

He added, later in the conversation: "I just don't want to comment on the status of [Days Gone 2], because Sony hasn't officially announced it."

From the above, it feels incredibly unlikely a sequel is going to arrive, but it's still unknown what Bend Studio is working on – and if Days Gone taught us anything, nothing stays dead for long.

What would happen in Days Gone 2?

Also, during his interview with David Jaffe, Days Gone director Jeff Ross revealed that co-op gameplay is something his team at Sony Bend had initially intended to incorporate into the first Days Gone game. That idea didn't make it into the first game, but according to Ross, it could have played a part in Days Gone 2.

Working together with a friend to fight off undead enemies, perhaps even with a base-building mechanic factored into proceedings, is the kind of thing you might be able to do in Days Gone 2 (if it ever does get made). Given the recent failure of Concord, it seems unlikely this would be integrated in a future sequel, but who knows?

Looking at how the first game ended, we can also guess what might have happened in the Days Gone 2 story. With the NERO organisation's James O'Brian revealed as an intelligent version of a zombie-like 'Freaker', he seems an obvious choice for the central villainous role in Days Gone 2.

Of course, only time will tell if players do get to slip back into the motorcycle boots of Sam Witwer's Deacon St John, or maybe a new protagonist. If we do get the chance to do that, hopefully we'll be able to take down O'Brian and NERO once and for all, offering a more satisfying conclusion this time around.

Sign the Days Gone 2 petition

If you've still not given up hope, the good news is fans have started a Change.org petition to try and 'Get Sony PlayStation to approve Days Gone 2'.

If you're keen for a sequel, drop your signature above, although whether anything happens with the petition remains to be seen – though it certainly demonstrates to Sony the value of the game.

At the time of writing, the petition currently has 229,905 signatures. It's great to see fans showing their support, and we'll let you know if any further Days Gone 2 news appears.

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