Departed Days Gone Game Director Says Sony Bend Punched Above Its Weight

A good way to reveal you're not worth listening too is using "woke" in a negative way in whatever rubbish you're typing, all he's done is expose himself as an a**hole.

What a truly embarrassing man. Thank god Sony got rid of him.

I specifically remember reviews complaining about “another gruff white guy”. I actually thought PS was one of them but quick glance at the linked review says otherwise.

and people wonder why days gone 2 was not approved...

Nah. That is messed up to throw your old pals under the bus like that. F that. Good thing he is gone.

Having such an attitude speaks volumes about how he was to work with. This guy ( and Jeff Ross as well) are salty about the failure of their game even 3 years later. Thank you Sony for getting rid of these two. Maybe focus on making a better game first rather than throwing your own colleagues under the bus like this.

@Savage_Joe Being understanding and accepting of others different to you is bad?

He didn't say anything wrong as everything he said was things that came out of the mouths of reviewers. There were reviewers complaining about it being another "gruff white male" and complaining on Twitter about the wedding scene and the scene of him looking at his wife's butt. There were absolutely cases of reviewers not finishing the game too. Not sure why people are mad at the guy for speaking the truth.

Now, I do remember Kotaku doing multiple articles on the game's main character being a gruff white man as a negative, but I don't feel the entire industry was making that point.

He's lost the plot - if he ever had it.

Days Gone definitely deserved more than it got in terms of score, and was one of the best games of last generation imo. But it was so good BECAUSE of the great coders who made it happen, not in spite of them. Much as I loved the characters and the whole biker set up, that was a choice that clearly would not appeal to all people and he made that choice.

Still, there's a ton load of games I believe deserve more recognition, and ton of praised games which are all hot air and not a lot else. Its the nature of the business, and carping on about it like this does nobody any favours.

Just checked the Metascore for Days Gone.

71.

Absolutely fair, pretty bland open world, average driving and shooting mechanics, paint by numbers story.

I was fairly impressed by the "Horde" side quests (I think you do one or two as part of the main story too) as it was technically impressive.

Think the score is absolutely fair? Another guy lost to the Joe Rogan blackhole.

the reasons it didnt do so well was buggy launches never help games

it was too long a 3rd less of it would have been better

and what there was of it was good but not amazing

Once you use the word "woke" your argument is meaningless to me.

"he pointed to tech issues (...) as a reason for the less-than-stellar scores"

Well no s**t, Sherlock.
Who would have thought that technical issues could impact the review score

Days gone was good but if i remember right it came after alot of top quality sony titles so the okay reviews stood out more. Plus it did release buggy at the time when people were really getting fed up of the release now, patch later mentality

Whenever you think these 2 can’t get anymore embarrassing they come back and prove you wrong

He's probably right tbf

I haven’t played yet but I have it in library as part of the PS5 PS Plus Collection (speaking of we need some new games).

It’s in my backlog and I’ll probably play it within the next year.

Another reason why I don't really pay attention to review scores in general.

I thoroughly enjoyed Days Gone, and didn't experience any issues while playing.

Some of the best experiences I have had gaming have been with games that have generally scored lower, so reviews don't matter much to me anyhow.

What a dumb tantrum. I liked Days Gone and finished it. But I agree fully with the Push Square review: it is a solid 7/10 game. It has good, fun elements. The hordes were fantastic-everything else has been done better in other games. And a lot of people thought that, and that is why they are getting no sequel. They simply did not move enough people with their game-period.

They have every right to be proud of their game. I know they are disappointed. But this is the second or third Twitter tantrum the developers have thrown, and it is embarrassing for them. It is making me regret buying the game.

He cited a reason that I noticed too: many reviewers didn't really played the game too much. The game is more of a slow burn type, he keeps getting bigger and better through the campaign,. The "horde" aspect isn't even mentioned in some reviews I saw, and it's a top aspect of the game, a huge diferential that we don't really see often in other products. And the story is much better than some critics say.

It's a perfect game? No. but it's quite solid, atmospheric, and fighting a huge hord of freaker zombies is a unforgettable experience. I platined the game with pleasure!!

@get2sammyb He isn’t wrong, it’s just not a good look because he will now be destroyed by media.

Shooting up zombies and hordes was fun af on the hardest difficulty for me, that and the bike riding, open world were the highlights of the game. I played it a year or so after launch, when all major bugs etc were patched out. The story was mediocre at best. Solid 8.5/10 for me though.

@FatalBubbles I think it was Gamespot. It was a very unprofessional and controversial review of the game and I challenge anyone to go and look it up before making judgements of either side.

"So, I guess bugs, streaming, and framerate matter."

Um. Yes. They do. Lolol

You can't "just play the game" if the underlying technical aspects are ass at launch. There were loooooads of gifs and videos of players having zombie hoards just POP into existence out of nowhere. That would RUIN the game, especially in the early hours.

The game was good. Real good. I actually put it up as a top 3 PS4 exclusive (behind GoW and HZD, for the record). But I played it (and platinumed it) loooong after the kinks were ironed out. If the game launched in as solid of a state as I played it? It prolly sits above an 85% on metacritic. But yeah... you can't launch a game in an awful state and be mad you got criticized for it.

What a douche.

While my perception was that the game scored the way it did due to the overall game design, it is interesting to see it pointed out that the PC version scored better despite that aspect remaining unchanged. I would also be upset seeing that after I lost my job due to the game's critical reception. But nothing good ever comes from Twitter. John and Jeff are talented developers with a great track record and I look forward to their next games. No need to demonize him for venting his frustrations, even if he may be a bit off-point.

@IslandLogic Kotaku and IGN also brought it a quick search tells me.

I think you can point out that you're tired of generic middle-aged white dude protagonists in Western media without it being a "woke" concern. I'm sure that was the case for some people, but some of us just genuinely wouldn't mind seeing a more diverse array of characters starring in major Western-developed game projects.

It probably doesn't help that the game itself looked incredibly generic as well.

Twitter is such an ugly place but we’ll continue to pull comments from there to make articles 🤣

The guys entitled to his opinion, you may not agree with it, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t post it.

@JudgeDredd Top tier comment here.

The problem with Days Gone was management though. It started of as a PS3 game & then when delayed multiple times on PS4, still released in a buggy state to reviewers & didn’t review anywhere as needed.
At some point you just have to cut loose & go in a different direction.

People still go on about how Evolution/DriveClub studio shouldn’t have been closed, but they royally screwed up there at launch. Actions have consequences.

I enjoyed Days Gone. Got the platinum, but let’s be honest that game was in development for like 7/8 years. In that timespan Naughty Dog put out Uncharted 1-3 & TLOU to critical & commercial acclaim & startedpre-production on Uncharted 4 I imagine.

@WallyWest
"Woke" is one of those terms that has just lost all meaning. Nowadays anybody who uses it is just applying that word to anything that they don't like regardless of content. That and they say "woke" to anything that has women in the lead, minorities, or lgbt themes. Because apparently the mere existence of those is political.

Guy seems like a delight to work with

@PegasusActual93 Its like SJW, that used to be positive but it was turned into an insult by bigots and incels.

I KNEW IT! God anybody that can OK Deacon as a character obviously drinks the Kool-Aid.

@ChrisDeku Definitely! I mean what else would they be if they take issue with being generalised and insulted for having an opinion contrary to yours??

The writing in this game was so, SO bad. That's why it didn't get good reviews. My god, if the dialogue didn't make you cringe every 30 seconds...

@get2sammyb “Just close Twitter if you have nothing positive to say IMO.”

Then Twitter probably wouldn’t exist lol which wouldn’t be a bad thing really.

I'm a bit of an outlier with Days Gone, I absolutely loved it and really thought they had something great, but yeah the article nails it, just close social media and take a breather instead of posting that stuff.

Both are still extremely bitter year's after maybe they need other more positive ways to air their collective demons. Unprofessional and shortsighted.

I really liked Days Gone. I mean, its not gonna change the world but it has an 80's action movie feel to it that really struck a chord for me. Once you view it that way, its just a joy. The world itself was also something i could happily explore and get lost in.

Admittedly though, this chap comes across as a bit of a d*ckhead to say the least.

There goes the neighbourhood… again 🤣

His frustration is understandable, a product that he worked tirelessly to make, gets s****** on by some reviewers for having a White protagonist of all things. I played the game and enjoyed it especially the hordes it was really fun. It's not a masterpiece in any way but the treatment it got from the so called game journalists is a shame, particularly when they drop point just because the lead is a white guy.

Days gone is a amazing game.its one of my favorite ps4 games ever.the gameplay is fun.and the graphics is wonderful.the story is really good.i play days gone on my ps4 pro and i didn't not have no issues.days gone is a fun game.days gone is going to down in several years as a underrated classic.word up son

His second point is kind of true. Up until Days Gone I had no idea that reviewers didn’t always finish the game before scoring it. That would be fine if the reviews came with a disclaimer ‘only played the first 5 hours of this 60 hour game’ but they rarely do.

I really liked Days Gone and completed it 100%. It was a little shaky at the start but improved massively the more you progressed. One of my favourite games on PS4 in fact. I always hoped there would be a sequel or dlc but it seems more and more unlikely now.

I love Days Gone but this dude needs to move on it has been out for a long time

I had the good luck of playing this long after launch, after who knows how many bug fixes and performance improvements. The result was a very solid open world game, can't say how much my take would have changed had I played it Day 1.

As for reviews, I haven't read any to confirm or deny what this guy is saying, but regardless of political leaning a lot of stupid crap is often complained about and blown out of proportion by critics. So I wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth to the claims. Never a good look to use the word "woke", though.

@get2sammyb well said, Sammy. Truly embarrassing.

@Savage_Joe before the far right twisted it into something negative. Attack something enough times and people will forget what it stands for.

he's 100% right, if Deacon and bozo were non straight couple the game would have gotten 93 metascore lol, but since it's s traight dude with a straight woman the woke media wasn't took keen on it. go to metacritic and see all the reviewers there then check their track record with woke stuff lol anything woke is an immediate masterpiece

The game was a 7/10 so it got a 7/10. Move on and stop making an ass of yourself dude.

While I get where he’s coming from… I mean dude this is not the way to handle it.

Bow out with grace. You poured your soul into a game and not everyone liked it. There’s nothing wrong with that.

I do agree with him in the sense that I remember a lot of people ragging on Deacon as a character based solely on the fact he was a white biker dude. And I never understood that; he was telling a story about some guys who were remnants of white biker gangs in a post zombie apocalypse. The character had to be a white gruff dude. The story demanded it.

My issue with Deacon was that he was boring for the most part. I only really liked him when he was talking to himself.

@The_Moose your comment makes absolutely no sense because the article is about a man child generalising and insulting(calling them woke) a group of people based on their opinions(the opinion of not liking their game).

By defending such actions people are showing who they truly are, and they’re the ones guilty of the things you’re saying.

The saddest part is that he isn't wrong. There are just as many trolls on the 'left' as there are on the 'right'. Both should be called out equally.

He is a dummy for being so public about it tough lol.

Don't really care for those using woke or SJW as an attack point, that's always been lazy and just nullifies discussion / opposite opinions, no matter how rancid or agreeable they are to an individual.

Just live life simply....

Treat others how you wish to be treated.
Don't s**t on your own doorstep
Don't act a c**t. ---- EASY!

Anyhoo on topic.. (and apologies mods)

Shame he put the team under the bus, but having that sort of influence in his role, a large part of the buck stops at him and to be honest he should have moved on by now anyway..

As for the game, I played it via PS5 and I genuinely enjoyed it for what it was, a pure action based zombie game.. and I'd thoroughly recommend it still, even with its noted issues.

Days Gone was just cool though. I like SONY Bend, and I felt there was potential for bigger and better sequels.

I really liked Days Gone - so much so that I actually put effort into getting Platinum (which I RARELY do).

I really would have loved a sequel - especially with the "special ending" opening up a ton room for a sequel.

Oh well, I guess I will just have to use my own imagination for what comes next in the game's universe.

Gawd, weakness and agenda-grinding rear their revolting heads again, both by an aggrieved Developer and online commenters.

Now, as for Twitter, Elon is doing his best to destroy the platform, and I wish him all the success in that endeavor he so obviously deserves. Apart from the lost jobs, it'll be good riddance, though a short-lived reprieve at best. Human nature would find another way to express its less than savory inclinations soon enough.

@The_Moose - Finally, someone who admits it.

He‘s not wrong. Alot of reviewers disliked because jt was a white biker guy. The gameplay is arguably a lot more entertaining than Horizon or God of War

I genuinely don’t know what “woke”in this context means. It’s something adopted from America, correct?

Also, Kevin McAllister.

Never forget ign saying another generic white guy(or something like that) why would race have anything to do with your opinion of a game. I really think the woke reviewers really hurt the game. I didn't buy it at launch because of all the negative reviews. Months later I picked it up and loved it

@WallyWest Lawyers for the Republican party in the US had to define the word woke in court and defined it as the belief that the world is not equitable and effort to make the world equitable. It's funny to see them forced to admit that their supposed boogeyman is just a bunch of people who want the world to be a little bit better.

This game seems like it has drama around it every year. I get he is passionate about his work but it's been almost 3 years now my dude. Let it go.😄

As for his statements the main character was just not interesting and no, it's not because he is white and gruff. He could have been black, trans, gay, female, or whatever else. It would make no difference. Good character development is more complicated than just skin color and sexual orientation. Their motivations, quirks, challenges, and relationships to other characters and whatnot are what seperates the great characters from the rest.

As for the bugs, it was apparently in a much worse state pre-day 1 patch. I would say he should be more upset with Sony PR than his former coworkers for sending out review code that was not ready for review yet.

And all of this is for an okay game. I liked Days Gone but let's not pretend it's an absolute all time classic yeah? Let it go sir. Let it go.

@Vacuumator - AFAIK, it means being respectful of other people's identities and differences. Of course, incels like to bend this definition like play-dough to make themselves to not look like the bad guy's in whatever awful narrative they're trying to push that day, but...

@WallyWest bingo. Anyone even using the term woke is just not worth even giving the time.

It's equally bizarre that this just kind of shows how tone deaf he is regarding the actual reviews of the game and it kind of paints him and his obvious ignorant ideology in a bad light. He even chose to blame and throw parts of his development team under the busm?!
But like I said that aside I mean there were genuine complaints about the game that although I don't agree with and I thought it was a decent game, were valid and as we've seen with many games that came after if you release a game in a really crappy technical state it really does paint a sour picture that is hard to overcome even if it gets fixed later on.

My biggest complaint with the game is that it was just too Ubisoft like, there was a lot of repetitive tasks to be done in a lot of mindless traveling back and forth to get those tasks done and it really padded out the game in a way that actually made it seem less compelling and of quality. I think had it been like a really short 20 hour to 30 hour experience even with some of the side part maybe 40 hours tops I think it would have been far better off.

All in all though I do think that a lot more could have been done with a sequel to iron out some of the issues for sure but regardless of that; there are consequences when you pick such a generic characterization for your main protagonist : a stereotypical white biker persona and you're going to turn some people off cuz a lot of people don't like Alpha Chads a lot of people don't like stereotypical nonsense and it gets old it's very one-dimensional......Men like cars men like girls men like bikes men like guns men like muscles..... It's just cringe stuff.

@Savage_Joe it’s all good dude

@WallyWest Yes because being woke is a forced agenda and others are made to feel their opinion doesnt fit in, its actually called fascism.

On topic - Loved Days Gone.

@ChrisDeku So unless a commenter on this thread comes out as saying "I support Trump" or "I dwell in my basement and am an involuntary celibate", how do you know that a commenter is those things? You don't and your comment fell into the same trap as that which you're accusing the dev in this article of, generalisng

@EmmatheBest admits what?

Did he provide any evidence to go along with his ridiculous assertion? If anything he's making sure there will never be another Days Gone.

Having white leads didn't stop Uncharted, TLOU, most COD's (with many many more games!) from being successful so why did that only effect his game?

@EmmatheBest

It dates back to the 1960s in the black American community.

“Stay woke young brother.”

It basically meant don’t fall for the bull crap the oppressive society feeds you to try and make you feel lesser.

Like many words its definition has changed over the decades.

@The_Moose - What you said in your last comment there before mine. You get it, and I'm glad.

@OrtadragoonX - Exactly. Everyone nowadays seem to want to assign their own meaning to the word. But when people like the guy in this article use it in the way he did...it definitely ends up revealing a lot about the kind of person you are, let's just say that.

@BRUTALSAM yes, because there have been so many non straight couples in video games and those games got all 10s across the board. R.I.P., facts.

@KundaliniRising333 "there are consequences when you pick such a generic characterization for your main protagonist : a stereotypical white biker persona and you're going to turn some people off cuz a lot of people don't like Alpha Chads a lot of people don't like stereotypical nonsense and it gets old it's very one-dimensional......Men like cars men like girls men like bikes men like guns men like muscles..... It's just cringe stuff."

You're entitled to your opinion but all those classic action movies/games/TV series sporting said tropes are more beloved by generations and even by many women than a lot of the crap the media corporations are pumping out today.

@Smiffy01 Radiohead would hate you.

@Smiffy01

That’s just the nature of modern politics.

Both the right wing and left wing are guilty of it. Which is why I’m not politically active anymore.

When I say I support the right to bear arms for self defense the left calls me a sociopath and that I hate children. When I say I support unionization and worker’s rights the right calls me a communist who wants to bring on the red terror.

That’s why I just got so tired of it all. Both ideologies try to force you into a strict box. There’s no nuance. Either you’re a communist or a fascist to the ideologues.

"Either you’re a communist or a fascist to the ideologues."

So which are you?? 😜

I never played the game. But it looked like the last of us and horizon had a child. And it's another single player Sony game. This was right after Detroit came out and I was burnt out and still burnt out of these type of
Games. Bugs I can deal with.

The thing is, there’s no right or wrong here and none of us have any idea what problems, meetings, missed deadlines, family dynamics, work relationships, messages and struggles packed the powder keg behind his words. He obviously feels this way for a reason and for folks to be so quick to invalidate his lived experience simply because they don’t agree with his point of view or choice of words does nothing but create more division and anger. Let him be pissed. He’ll figure out the rest as he goes just like the rest of us.

@The_Moose it’s a generalisation being reactively applied to people in support of generalisations. Think of it as the death penalty for murderers.

So do you condemn the comments made by Garvey and the generations and insults of his statement?

@Smiffy01 I’d love for you to elaborate on how asking to be considerate of other people is comparable to the Third Reich. Or are you just another one of those types who throws words like fascism around without first consulting the dictionary?

Open world games are my favorite, but Days Gone was empty and bland. Besides good graphics it had nothing unique or intriguing about it.

Gameplay was so mundane. I was bored out of my mind after about 15 hours and just stopped playing - which I almost never do with games I've gotten that far into, especially open world games. So glad I didn't spend any money on that dud, and hope that guy realizes how much of an idiot he sounds like.

People can dislike a game for all kinds of reasons. If the reason is that the main character is a white male, so be it. It's an incredibly stupid reason lol, but I'm not telling them to change their opinion.

The game also had its technical issues at launch. And it took me two tries to get into, so there's that. I did end up liking the game a lot though. And many people did. So yes, he should definitely try to focus more on the positives than the negatives.

And he seems such a nice guy in interviews, but on Twitter... Why are people still even using Twitter?

@The_Moose

I’m neither. I hate political extremes.

I’m one of the most middle of the road people you’ll ever meet. I have some passionate left views and I have some passionate right views depending on the subject at hand.

I find myself leaning more left on the vast majority of social issues and anything dealing with labor. But I’m very much on the right when it comes to right to keep and bear arms.

Not a good move to publicly reveal how toxic you are, especially if he still might be looking for another job in the industry. Not just in gaming, when you work in a team the failures are not a single person's/group's fault for management to blame, it's a learning opportunity for everyone to improve next time.

@ChrisDeku I don't agree with all of what the Dev said.

I also disagree with what you said, you criticised the Dev for generalising by generalising.

@Constable_What

I would say being tolerant is the key.

There’s some things people do that I don’t care for. But I live by a central code.

“If what one citizen chooses to do does not infringe on the rights of his or her fellow citizens then it is not my place to judge and I will tolerate it and be kind to them so long as they show me kindness in return.”

That’s how I make it through life without being a jerk.

@OrtadragoonX I'm sure you are very middle of the road dude with your own opinions on things and I respect that. Refreshing to hear in fact.

Was just poking fun at the political climate today with my previous comment

@OrtadragoonX
I hear ya. I'm so tired of the political tribalism that has gripped society. I wish folks could just get back to agreeing to disagree every now and then. Left or Right. Democrat or Republican. Racist or snow flake. It's exhausting sometimes that's for sure.

@The_Moose

If you agree with the generalisations and insulting of people who didn't like his games as woke people or didn't finish the game then you are fair game for the same generalisations and insults. That's the whole point. Or are you one the people who believe freedom of speech only goes one way?

I have a feeling this guy is going to end up like David Jaffe sadly lol

@get2sammyb could they make a sequel without the moaning a** or does he own the IP? It'd be funny as hell to see Sony announce a sequel without this guy involved 😂

Whatever you believe the reason to be for no sequel, he is acting very bitter about it every time his name pops up in the news, definitely grasping at straws and trying to make himself appear more competent and not at fault for any of his failures, and is coming across as someone that is probably counterproductive to a team too.

If a game is likely to be loved by some and bore some others as it isn't different enough or riveting enough to move the needle significantly, then middling reviews are fair, the games that get 8's and 9's are usually immensely popular with players, and are talked about widely, Days Gone is not talked about in the same way as these games, it had a mini resurgence when it was given away for free with PS5's but still nothing that breaks into the real mainstream

Maybe if it didn't bore some reviewer's because they didn't care about the characters and it was similar to lots of other stuff at first then it would have scored a bit higher, GameSpot at 5/10 seems quite low for this type of game, but I don't think a few more 7's instead of 5's would have got it a sequel. And if it would have, then maybe they should have written it so people didn't get turned off of it before completing it 😁

@ChrisDeku You can sum up the motivations of people who take issue with a character's skin colour pretty quickly in my experience whether they're criticising it or praising it, why should it matter if your motivations are pure?

Also if I remember correctly some of the reviewers even said they didn't finish it so he's taking them at their word.

I haven't mentioned anything regarding freedom of speech in this thread and I'm more than happy for people to express their opinion, if I think they're wrong I'll make a contrary argument, not block them like some others would.

I do love how "woke" has become the default response to anything somebody doesn't like or agree with and thankfully this guy has gone with that attitude.

Days Gone got the score it deserved at around a 7 which is a good game, the horde mechanic is fun, the story is very obviously meant to have decisions which were ripped out, whilst the open world and settlements are by the numbers with nothing meaningful going on.

Can anyone realistically say that this is up there with the likes of RDR2 or Naughty Dogs games for example? But also we need to normalise games scoring a 7 as meaning they are good and worth playing.

For me, I personally prefer the reviews and views of my fellow gamers (I get that includes paid reviewers). I also get the notion that you cannot polish a turd, but if you take a look at the Steam reviews of the game right now, 92% of the reviews are recommending the game. That's a hell of a good position to be in, and clearly means that the game is not a turd by any stretch. What it does likely mean is that the game could have done with another few months in the oven. It also means that people need to view the game in its current state, and not necessarily the state in which it released (case in point Cyberpunk 2077 too). It's a good game that is reviewing well, and in my opinion, deserves a sequel, and rants from the Developers aside, I can understand his frustration with the situation...

Using "woke" as an insult just shows you're a sad sack who wants to jump on a right wing bandwagon.
All it means is being respectful of others. then right wing crazies turned it into something negative.
This guy is either making it clear who he wants his audience to be.

Oh and I played the game on PS5, and after a few hours I had to stop. It was just so boring gameplay wise after you finish your first horde, with an empty world

Could I just ask all those that played it. If there was a sequel, what would it entail? Would it just be more of the same, but they'd already squeezed as much out of a story as possible? Or do you feel there was another 50-60 hours worth of content to add on to more zombie horde killing, fetch quests, crafting and refueling your bike gameplay?

@nessisonett Hahah what about Idles 😀

I didn't play Days Gone because it didn't look particularly interesting.

All I know is that it's an open world zombie game, not very inspiring, only this time it's got a bike. I saw something about horde mechanics that looks cool I guess? I was so disinterested that I never read any of the reviews he's blaming.

Am I into it? Not really, but I guess I'm just, like, super woke or something.

@Ravix for a sequel I'd say tell a new story with different characters in the same world, perhaps someone who worlds for Nero, they can build upon the existing mechanics and make settlements actually worthwhile. They can still use bikes to get around as that would make sense given they would use less fuel and that's a limited resource.

Days gone was an excellent game. Possibly it could have been improved with another 6 months in the oven. However if Sony aren't going to use the IP why not sell it to another Dev to create a days gone 2.

I'd also blame the change in leadership. That isn't the direction Jim Ryan and Hurst want all Sony WWS games to go in. If they aren't a mp microtransaction filled live service game they won't approve it, and will start to see this turnover in 2023 I predict. Hope everyone enjoyed Ragnorok because that was an end of an era.

@nessisonett he wouldn't have been so rubbish if, the usually great, Sam Witner had annunciated his lines properly instead of mumbling like an amateur.

@The_Moose "You can sum up the motivations of people who take issue with a character's skin colour pretty quickly in my experience..."

Ahh so now we're squarely In the territory of these generalisations are OK, those ones are not.

Days Gone was my favorite PS4 game. I would kill for a sequel on PS5. These comments are doing opposite for those slim chances.

@Mintie Current theory is that he saw Sam Witwer in Supergirl, agreed with the character’s views and created a game around it. Anybody who writes lines such as ‘ride me as much as you ride your bike’ needs to be institutionalised.

@Finozzi1696 sadly man this ***** woke crap is here to stay, and they'll be joined byeasily offended and butt hurt friends.
It's the world we live in now, had this conversation with a friend other day can you imagine some of older TV shows and movies and games, there wouldn't even be a chance of them existing if they were pitched now cause it would offend someone

Imagine what a PS5 sequel would do with improving the hordes. I really thought that they got the motorcycle driving done really well.

"woke reviewers who couldn’t handle a gruff white biker looking at his date’s ass”.

This is true both IGN & Kotaku complained about the main protagonist being white & male, you know straight away what type of people you are dealing with. People who demean people based solely on their skin colour, also calling non-white's certain racial slurs just because they don't hold the same views as them. Mainstream reviewers don't really have the credibility they once had, it wasn't really the mainstream reviewers. it was a buggy game at launch Dev's need to understand this will damage your day one sales more than anything else especially now with game's being £70 a pop.

It has a "very Positive" score on Steam. From reviews you can actually see how long they played before posting a review.

I did not care for it, never finished it. Other games pulled me away

That said, there is a hypocrisy on "technical issues" ruining a score. If that was a case most Switch games would never be anything above 7.

Mostly selective outrage based on the iP/publisher/hardware

@ChrisDeku Well if a reviewer said "I'm sick of playing as a protagonist with black skin in video games" and someone responded negatively to the focus on race, I wouldn't automatically think the person who responded was "woke".

If a reviewer said "I'm sick of playing as a protagonist with white skin in video games" and someone responded negatively to the focus on race, I wouldn't automatically think the person who responded was a "basement dwelling incel who supported Donald Trump."

@DenzelDM "Using "woke" as an insult just shows you're a sad sack who wants to jump on a right wing bandwagon.

All it means is being respectful of others"

So I doubt you identify as "woke" then with remarks like that?

Oh yeah, it was definitely the woke reviewers and not because the game was pure tedium and Deacons insipid voice acting.

Maybe I'm just being harsh because I played The Last of Us 1 for the 4rd time and then The Last of Us 2 for the first time before playing Days Gone, and they were absolute masterpieces in comparison.
And yes, I know you can't really compare TLoU1+2 that closely or fairly to Days Gone as they are ultimately different types of game, but they do feel samey in a lot of ways to me, so I have compared them.

I played it on PS5 and performance was good. So, no complaints in this regard from my end.
I really liked the atmosphere and sound design. That is what kept me playing, I think. Presumably also the overall world design.
Many of the more unique game mechanics did not work that well for me e.g. trying to escape a horde while making use of the various obstacles in the sawmill, or trying to lure hordes into bandit camps. So, in that sense besides the atmosphere, I did not find anything special. But which game in the past few years really surprised by introducing interesting, new game mechanics ?
Also, in my opinion, the story and characters were not really the strongest point here. I was interested in the mystery around NERO, but I was a bit disappointed how it all panned out (did they have to short cut to an end ? )
Overall I really liked the atmosphere. They nailed that, in my opinion. For me it was a good game, but t I did not play the initial version. Anyway I think nowadays many , maybe even most, reviewers do not try to make an objective review, they just seem to seek attention and focus on a few negative points which are blown out of proportion. There is always something negative to find, which does not make everything else bad as well. Often I have the opinion that reviewers get paid for one or the other opinion> Could also be the search algorithms which lead to a certain behaviour of reviewers. This site typically gives games a fair chance, I would say. Obviously, everybody has an opinion which cannot be suppressed completely.

While woke reviewers are prevalent - Kotaku, RPS, PC Gamer, Polygon, IGN for instance - they aren't the reason this game didn't do well. It did deserve to do better though.

It's sad that people think referencing the existence of woke anything and the negative consequences of their actions is somehow a red flag. The culture does exist and it does cause harm.

Freak out all you want, deep down you know there's truth to what he said. Several major publications would've awarded the game a higher score with a non white, non-straight lead.

@The_Moose lol look at you trying to twist words.

People can have opinions but using woke as a punching bag is just sad and antagonising. The moment you use it you ask to not have a decent conversation, as it's become a baseless complaint for people to throw around if they want to attract a certain audience.
if he actually created reasonable arguments (even if I don't agree with them) then it'd be a very different conversation. and my words would've been a lot more respectful.
But by adding "woh me being attacked by woke reviewers", there's no point in doing that anymore. It's a bad faith statement.

@Genghis_Schlonng nope. it would've still had terrible writing, a bland world design and the most boring fetch quests imaginable...

Maybe you made a crappy game, hence people didn't like it. Ever consider that? Seriously, the far right have lost their minds. No introspection. No self-analysis. Just always project being a victim, and counter with "I don't like something = woke, which = bad". Give me a f-ing break. Pathetic.

Days Gone deserved better. Sony did this game no favours sending it out to reviewers without the Day One patch which apparently was a pretty substantial improvement over the base version they reviewed.

It’s a really good game but it’s also nothing revolutionary in a saturated market of zombie and shooter games. The game still reviewed well so be proud of that instead of blaming others for not calling it a masterpiece.

@The_Moose man fair play to you. I don’t have the energy but you’ve been smashing it in this thread. Good man 👍🏻

Another positive. It seems the local commie has put me on ignore, that can only be a win 😄

So, I guess bugs, streaming, and framerate matter

No [bleep]!!! If you are the director, you don’t get to wash your hands off “tech issues” that end up determining if a game is even playable! It’s part of a directors job to make sure that stuff is up to par!

I figured it didn't do better mostly because it came out after the zombie game popularity had faded somewhat.

@Fenbops yep, I second that

@carlos82 were the bikes not just specific to those who were bikers anyway, thus had the mechanical knowledge for fixing things on the fly? Most people in universe were settled in locations that they found a way to get to, like in most zombie shows and games.

I just feel like the IP's strength is also it's weakness. They limited themselves to this one group of people/or one person, who ride bikes and kill zombies. Introducing more would seem strange, carrying on with the same when people did not fully respond to them anyway, wouldn't be enough for anything more than DLC. That's my main thinking as an outsider who might one day play the first one (I've seen plenty of it on YouTube)

Maybe the blame doesn't lie with everyone else, and that's what made Sony cautious on moving ahead with the IP. Maybe there was never legs for a full sequel with the world they created, unless they completely went away from one major thing that made it a more unique IP, the bike culture.

Almost every studio releases buggy games at launch these days. I never buy new release games for that reason. I'll let all the day one buyers find and complain about the bugs and let the devs fix the game before I buy it. In fact I never bought this game, per se, I got it free as a PS Plus game. It had zero bugs that I noticed, and the story and gameplay were awesome. It's become one of my favorite games. Sure, I got to the party late, but I got to enjoy it without all the bugs.

It's not a great game. Spent about 20 hours and couldn't hang. And that's fine. It's not because of the woke reviewers. It's literally because it's just not a great game.

@KaijuKaiser Seems I touched a nerve, lol. I project nothing. I have no hidden agenda. I don't hide my dislike of the far-right, of nationalists, of pointless culture war garbage arguments, of neo-nazis, etc... for examples, at all. I appreciate introspection, self-analysis and accountability from everyone, regardless of position. That includes myself.
Until those aforementioned stop using worn out buzzwords like "woke" 10K times per day to (ignorantly) describe everything they don't like, there is no valid counter. It just shows ones brain is a lazy, drunken mush of culture war garbage.

Like I said, no introspection. Examine recent US election results, examine general sentiment in the US political system, including last night in Georgia, and understand why they are so unpopular. "Woke bad, woke bad, I'm the real victim! Wwaaaahhhhhhh! " is not only idiotic and weak, but completely meaningless and unpopular.

As for the so-called professional reviewers, I couldn't care less what they think. The game never looked appealing to me, despite the horde-fighting mechanics being somewhat enjoyable, from what I read. My motto is and always has been play/read/watch/consume what you enjoy. If one needs the approval of others to do that, then I have no clue what to say there. O_o

These people just made a mediocre game, and they refuse to take responsibility. That's weak.

So do I. It was clear from many of the reviews that they didn't even play beyond the first few hours.

@EVIL-C lol you're hilarious.

@LiamCroft don't u just write the correct things to say , k a

It a cracking game ,there was a time when we respected our elders, now where just old past that u wanna throw away

What the hell is he talking about. Anyone who uses the word woke in any context I have no respect for.
Because they've no idea what the word even means.
News flash most games have the focus on a white male characters, after that Its white female.
I am going to to guess he is a conservative and his noictced a trend of hordes of conservative attacking TV show and movies getting called woke for having character who are non white, non straight and more non male characters. So he thinks let's blame the review on the reversals .

The biggest complaints about the game was bugs and glitch. Which reviewers go ham on.
But reviews are pretty irrelevant, most people buy games based on their interest in the Gerne , game play footages . But let's be realistic this is zombie action horror, a Gerne that has loads to choose from. Zombie horror with a white male protagonist there is loads .
The only thing that matters with green lighting future games is sales .not review. And if people aren't buying it that's on you .

@WallyWest couldn't agree more

@AndyP Preach!

Great game easy 9/10 from me, had such an amazing time, the music is on the next level.
I do love the story and the way it was told, side quest are related to the main story line.
Well and the shooting, no other game can give me the same feeling been chased by 600 zombies.
The world is beautiful, love to scavenging around.
Let's say I'm disappointed only by the fact that we will not see Days Gone 2 🥲

@Ravix

There’s not enough there in the original story to really carry a sequel.

Frankly neither was Zero Dawn. And that’s partially why Forbidden West’s story turned out like it did.

@JohntheRaptor and how does it cause harm? You think representation in art forms is harmful?

@Uromastryx stop being silly

@starbuck2212 Great counter. So strong, lol. 😉🤣

Days Gone is just plain dull I've tried getting into it around 3 times, and never encountered any technical issues or recall any instances where the main character checks out anyone's ass, so it must just be the boring characters (Deacon St John being the worst), gameplay seen and done better countless of other places, and just plain generic nature of the game as a whole

@get2sammyb while I agree that he should stay quiet. That same energy that goes to calling out his statements should also apply to the “industry analysts” that complained about ‘another white protagonist’. And there were plenty. Seems pushback is only safe in one direction, which requires no backbone.

it was a solid 8 nothing amazing, a bit long.

games shouldnt matter if you play as man/woman/alien/straight/gay/green/Black or whatever.

its not real life. so shouldnt have to represent it.

it should be about enjoyment, gameplay escapism. you know the reasons why we game.

if you mark games down for skin/lifestyle differences. then honestly you have much bigger issues in your life.

Story and characters sucked ass, I was skipping many cutscenes by the end, but it was an absolute blast and played beautifully on PS5.I enjoyed it much more than either Horizon game.

All that said, this guy sounds like a massive tool.

When you think your life is a failure just remember that at least you didn't make Days Gone.

@OrtadragoonX I suppose what separates them in that case is Horizon is a very unique IP with incredibly rich and detailed lore. You can probably have multiple titles based on that alone. The fact there was a very clear region that was only talked about in the first game let them further explore that in the second too.

A zombie motorbike game however relies on Zombies and Motorbikes and that is fairly limited in terms of expansion. Especially if the protagonist has already done his "emotional journey" arc with his best friend and his wife in the first game.

It's an interesting angle that cropped up though, away from the internet rage and potential quality of the initial game. Regardless of quality, regardless of the guys clear bitterness to some reviewers and staff and his skewed view that it's someone else's fault and nothing more than that. It'd be interesting to see what his pitch actually was for part 2. Was it just "more of the same" which would clearly not be enough for a sequel. With a protagonist that has been used up, the lore is mostly the standard zombie stuff, so what next to make it unique?

A Biker, but this one is also a Scientist? Roller-Derby Debbie, Teen Scourge of the Zombie Hoard? An Alaskan Skidoo Survivalist? A Jetpack Ninja?

I hope he tells us what his plans were

@theGoodChap amen.

@WallyWest woke is used as a derogatory term, mainly to describe people who are unwilling to accept anothers opinion, and try to ram that opinion down anyones throat who they believe to be a stain on humanity,it may not have started out that way ,it was probably with good intention ,but then, you know ,people.

@LiamCroft what exactly has he done that deserves the vilification?

All this woke business seriously needs to end. It's destroying all media like fire.

Granted, I never played the originally released incarnation. But I did buy it quite recently for PC, was a really excellent port and ran beautifully. The combat reminded me a lot of the newer Tomb Raider outings - that's fairly complementary as far as I'm concerned.

@tallythwack He gave an honest response about him feeling his game was treated unfairly by some press. @liamcroft wants nothing to do with it, and is glad he's gone from Sony.

Regardless if what he said was in poor taste or not I really despise hit pieces like these. What do you really get out of assassinating someones character like this? Clout? A sense of moral superiority? It's quite sad really. Shame on you. I look forward to hearing a far more fair, and level-headed take from the Sacred Symbols next week

@tallythwack yes woke has devolved to practically a meaningless insult at this point. It's one step away from being just another curse word.

@theGoodChap what I said is that the right winged crazies have gotten so many people riled up with the word.
He might not be far right, never said he was, and be critical of the GOP (hard not to be , if you’ve got half a brain cell, and yes same goes for some in the left jeeez I see a comment coming) but he still used the laziest excuse to not admit he made a very mediocre game.

And now I’m just going to reuse my response to someone else.
People can have opinions but using woke as a punching bag is just sad and antagonising. The moment you use it you ask to not have a decent conversation, as it's become a baseless complaint for people to throw around if they want to attract a certain audience.
if he actually created reasonable arguments (even if I don't agree with them) then it'd be a very different conversation. and my words would've been a lot more respectful.
But by adding "woh me being attacked by woke reviewers", there's no point in doing that anymore. It's a bad faith statement.

Put “woke” in the title and everyone comes out to make a noise. So predictable. People who complain about “woke“ on everything and people who want everything to be “woke“ need to be put on their own island and let them devour each other.

Great game. Loved the hordes. Funny I watched a YouTube review on ghost protocol. The reviewer trashed the game they had only played 5 hours. Lol. Maybe he has a point????

@KaijuKaiser All of those besides Spiderman are timed exclusives. Stop trying to fool yourself. Just wait till Sony stops being a mute and comes out of its success cave, and does another showcase and announce a bunch of those 10 live service games they are planning to release before 2026.

Days Gone was a solid 7/10 game that got solid 7/10's.

Also, no one listens to woke critics. See the respective success and failure of Top Gun Maverick and Amazon's LOTR: Rings of Power.

@get2sammyb nice ppl are allowed to vent too

This game was so bland, repetitive and unnecessarily long. Deacon was an absolutely hatable and annoying protagonist and not because I am “woke” but because the writing and dialogue was absolutely cringe:

A game that has plenty of technical issues won't get the review scores they were hoping for. It rarely happens aside from Pokemon games. Sure, if everybody went back and re-reviewed it after the patches, it probably would be sitting around an 80 or so, but that ship has sailed. It still did well enough to warrant a sequel, but obviously Sony didn't care.

Garvin comes off as a complete douche though. Again, it got reviewed accordingly. At least part of it technically does fall on the programmers, but there were undoubtedly other reasons as well (the fact that it got released when it wasn't ready). My biggest issue is early on it felt like I was playing The Last of Us on a motorcycle. The icons for resources you collect were straight out of The Last of Us, and the same goes for the crafting.

@KaijuKaiser I'm too far gone? My dude look at how everyone on this message board is responding to you. And yes, you appear have attached your identity to this game. It seems to personally offend you that other people do not like it. It's okay, it's a normal widespread phenomenon. People with sad lives attach themselves to games, companies, nationalism, Elon Musk, etc because they feel proud by that which they have associated themselves with. A common trait of people who do this is to attack anyone who does not like the thing they like which you are doing.

Maybe I am wrong but the alternative is that you're just kind of a rude ***** to people for no reason. If that's how you would prefer to be perceived then so be it.

It's disappointing to read this. I loved the game, one of my favorites. I did only play the PS5 version as part of PS+ collection, so it was 4k/60 for me with most of the bugs fixed. I think once or twice my motorcycle was invisible for a bit.

As soon as someone is dumb enough to use the term "woke" in their criticism though it just points them out as ignorant. I'm pretty liberal, and I wasn't bothered at all by the touching, realistic parts of a relationship. Maybe some reviewer was, but I thought the relationship parts of the story were some of the sweetest parts.
I did love just driving around and looking at the scenery, then taking a break to beat the ***** out of some zombies. Hordes were awesome. Totally wrecked me the first time. I really underestimated how powerful they'd be This is one of the very few games I platinum'd.
Anyway, love the game 9/10 for me. Can't say the same about Garvin.

Problem is, if you release a buggy game, that's what the reviewers review. They don't go back and rereview the game the next month after you patch it and fix the bugs. That's why companies need to stop releasing broken games.

I get why it's not beloved, but Days Gone is up there as one of my favorite games of all time, definitely my favorite open world. The story was better than it had any right to be, even if it wasn't perfect, and the cast was fantastic. The narrow focus of the open world, but the breadth contained within it, made it feel really special - intimate in a way but somehow wild and untamed - pretty much exactly what the game needed. The survival aspects were tuned so perfectly to the point where they added to the experience, and things like refueling the bike becomes a comforting ritual. The fact that the game is legitimately difficult early on, and every ride can spell absolute disaster if you're not careful, means you play with the kind of trepidation I've rarely experienced outside of a Fromsoft game. And the hordes! Probably my single favorite gaming mechanic ever. It's so easy to get swarmed by zombies and completely annihilated, but the feeling when you just scrape out a victory after throwing firebombs, setting up traps, mowing them down with a machine gun, and sprinting for your life made it the most rewarding gaming experience I can think of. I genuinely loved Days Gone, and I went in with pretty low expectations. That said, completely agree this guy needs to ditch twitter and chill out.

@OrtadragoonX They left it open-ended, you still have two main characters and you'd have the new story hook of the guy in the chopper being an evolving zombie. They easily left it open enough they could do a sequel, I'm just not sure how they'd add something to the game play to not just have it be more of the same. All these open-world games start to get boring as you basically keep doing the same missions with different skins. Ghost of Tsushima got universal praise, and it was good at first, but it bogs down too. At some point I realized it's basically Day's Gone with a horse instead of a motorcycle, and Mongols instead of zombies. It doesn't even have horde mode. You do get to pet the foxes though, so there's that.
Anyway, I think there's a bit of open-world fatigue going on. At least for me. So maybe a sequel isn't the best idea. Unless they do it in VR. That would be killer on PSVR2. Beautiful scenery, riding the motorcycle and zombies running at you. Hell yeah.

I liked days gone and all. However for me personally I thought the story just wasn’t good at all. Not too mention some design choices like the Nero stealth sequences felt dumb. Great horde mechanics and everything else though.

PushSquare really reaping the hateclicks with this one. Shame that simping for ad revenue is all they do now.

@WallyWest that’s not how woke works

@NikCanPlay i agree , people are so uptight and pretentious nowadays that it’s actually pressuring to be human and have emotions other than being a hard-wired positivity bot . you’d think society left peer-pressure behind in gradeschool but unfortunately it persists and is a lifelong thing apparently .

can’t be yourself without being misjudged and have to walk on eggshells in a so-called life of free will and freedom. it’s obnoxious and disgusting. people are allowed to not be perfect or emotionally stressed as nature intended . let it out .

screw this oppressive conformist era , im human first .

@Critonic -claims to be liberal

-is prejudiced & unaccepting of others opinions

@theGoodChap exactly this , these people are unbearable and not even realistic anymore . its a situation where the good guys heads are so far up their own assess that they’re actually the bad guys and don’t even see it because their ego is telling them that their own ***** doesn’t stink

@nomither6 Being awake to the world is not how it works?

@Savage_Joe woke means being aware of systematic oppression and discrimination. I guess sticking your head in the sand and ignoring that is preferable?

@NikCanPlay it's toxic to claim it's completely the programmers fault and not managements for releasing a buggy game. They should've delayed the game to release it in a better state, then they would've gotten better initial reviews.

@Savage_Joe Awareness has always been a positive thing.

Days Gone was just not that good a game. It was fine, but that was it, really. More zombies, more open world, more chores, more clichés, no appealing story beyond cardboard characters and the bold assumption that we'd really care about them.

Everything it did, The Last of Us (and its sequel) did better, with deeper characters, a more original world and an intricately crafted plot. Days Gone was OK, but just OK. It brought absolutely nothing new to the formula.

@Savage_Joe Which would make sense, of course, only this article suggests it's actually the opposite of what you're describing ("woke" people are being blamed for the dev's failings, not the other way around: they're the ones being attacked).

To be fair it was one of the worst firstparty releases in quality. The game is fun but it needed some more time in the oven but i understand that Sony has to draw a line in the sand after such a long time. With less bitching he could maybe have been able to release a fully optimized PS5 version.

@NikCanPlay The man is losing all his goodwill for a good but not special game. If he would have acted less like he is doing now he would have been in a much better place. Maybe move on instead of keep beating a dead horse.

@nomither6 With all the terrible people hiding behind woke the word lost its meaning completely. From racist, homophobe and whatever more there is around the woke excuse lost his punch.

@Savage_Joe that has nothing to do with being woke and everything with just being a jerk.

I have only gotten around to playing the game recently. Unfortunately, with all that has happened here in the US since Trump waddled into town, I couldn't stomach the whole biker /outlaw thing. Hits too close to home as some sort of MAGA fantasy.

On wokeness: As a foreigner (African) living in Germany, I did take some time to try and understand what the fuss about minorities, privileges, sjws etc was about. Biggest mistake of my life. I almost lost my sanity trying to make sense of left and right wing politics. I must give credit to a big part of the right , they hate you and don’t hide it so you know who you’re dealing with and how you should react, exactly. The left is a lot trickier. I found that concepts like white privilege, an over focus on minorities and an inhumane level of expectation of political correctness (you have to be perfect at all times or else…) among other things didn’t give me that feeling of empowerment (as a black Person), people even fear to ask me where I’m from despite hearing it from my accent and seeing it on my skin tone that I’m not from these streets - gives me those African dictator feels. I concluded that the right is mostly directly racist, the left, ironically feels racist, sexist and all the isms they try to fight because their methods seem so twisted, the goal is noble but the means to get there, not soo much (imo) like the constant categorisation of people, while calling for unity >> “what do you as a cis white male think of x”. Plus You can only contribute to discussions in only soo far as you’re part Of the group in question. Soo if you’re a cis white man you’re either an ally or shut up because your male white Privilege means you have nothing to worry about , you know no suffering and therefore have nothing to contribute to any discussion around minorities. Such things made me conclude that with the left you need to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get to what I consider to also be euphemistic segregation, plus it’s well intended soo it’s hard to criticise, without being called racist, sexist or whatever label aligns with what sort you’re criticising. I don’t like either left or right. I got out of my depression/confusion/culture shock, I realised I was becoming angry and significantly less happier in life. I spent nights watching YouTube videos on both sides, the topic actually managed to divert my attention from games for a while, which was sad because when I came to Germany I was soo happy to finally have access to games, compared to Uganda (my backlog is crazy 😂). And now I run out of any rooms or discussions with the slightest whiff of what I consider to be political/wokeness or whatever you want to call all that I’ve described above- Left or right. Now I stick to our Simple African politics of “when is he leaving power” 😂
There’s always something that takes me back to my old ways like this article for example, but it helps to write down my thoughts in a book I got specially for that, and move on
I just hope there will be less ”newses” like this on the site 🤞🏿

On topic: I’ve still never played days gone but it’s now my 2023 resolution

Wow umm, I would call this guy an idiot, but I wouldn't want to insult all the people that aren't half as much of an idiot as him. Oh and yes, things like bugs and framerates absolutely, positively do matter. They matter quite a lot. Duh. Oh and nobody ONCE said anything negative about the main character.

@KahnArtizt07 no actually being "woke" means it's apparently wrong to think hundreds of years of systematic oppression and discrimination are bad things, and you should just accept them as part of society. Anti-wokers are terrible people. Sorry but it's quite true.

@nomither6 ROFL! Ahh my GOD see? Your perspective of how modern society actually is, is so completely false that it's literally insane. How utterly pitiful. You have no clue.

@nobiwan meh, left and right politics are just an oversimplification of more complex social issues, and should generally be ignored entirely. As far as politicians really go, all they ACTUALLY care about is getting in office so they can make a lot of money and do very little. Both sides.

@SidNightwalker do you know how big the world is ? you have no clue 🤡

wasn’t speaking for the whole world anyway like you apparently are 🤡. go be annoying to somebody else .

@SidNightwalker for sure. Over simplification of these topics is definitely why both left and right wing takes left a very sour taste in my mouth.
Plus it’s good for one to know oneself. Not everyone is Cut out for this fight and I think I’m one of the “weak” ones - so to say or it’s a cultural thing, and I’m from a significantly different one. But I’ll definitely take your advice on ignoring it 🫱🏾‍🫲🏿

Nah, it was just boring. But blaming woke people will get the $$$ rolling in, I guess he’s raising money for another game?

He is correct 😎

Dude can't handle that his 7/10 game received 7/10 scores.

Also shows that just because you say individually "correct" things, it doesn't mean your conclusion made sense. Yes, there were a lot of bugs, yes many reviewers didn't finish it, and yes some reviewers had issues with the game's choice of main character. Are these why the game didn't sell well? Besides the buggy launch, no. He made a game that had some merits but didn't speak to everyone, then got upset there's no sequel because the game couldn't sell a gorillion copies. Maybe that more says something about the current state of incredibly expensive AAA titles making companies complacent with simply refining what's sold the best instead of taking chances, but then again Days Gone wasn't the most unique game anyways so a sequel probably wouldn't have been greenlit anyways.

@Savage_Joe exactly !! it was never a positive thing imo, i do agree that it's bad to throw your colleagues under the bus like that and tbh that's the only thing i didn't like about these tweets, but i agree with everything else they both said.

@theGoodChap well said man.

I really enjoyed the game and story, but the slowdown on PS4 was terrible.

@IslandLogic It's nothing new controversial reviews but the game wasn't that fantastic it was a fun with its flaws especially the least polished firstparty title around. You can say it's great and that wont be a issue but this guy has burned a lot of bridges already and he should move on. And what's even worse is that he throws his fellow workers under the bus.

@Pokemaniacal yes it does. There you go. Argument.

@WallyWest @naruball Always lean more towards a progressive ideas and always vote social/liberal, but I'm tired of fellow "liberals" that get hung up on these pointless social media crusades and put up the same tantrums as conservatives. In the meantime liberals loose focus on actual issues like wage theft, union busting, gender wage gap, housing, healthcare, neo liberalism and corporate power, reperations and true equality.
Progressives that sh** their pants when someone tweets "woke" have not solved a damn thing but rather feed into the distraction. So thank you and many others here for keeping up the status quo and doing nothing besides pushing up their own egos.
If you want to stand for something, do it in real.

@get2sammyb It's not twitters fault but the the author's.

@Skratm

It's quite staggering the ignorance people have regarding history. "Oppression" in a first world country, give me a break. Westerns are some of the most privileged people on the planet, but you already know that.

I'd admit, the previews of this game didn't interest me, it looked boring, generic looking lead character, done to death story.

But word of mouth suggest this is actually quite a decent game. I think if they moved away from Sony and their criticism of the game, could had easily got a sequel with someone else.

This guys lost it though, not helped himself.

The guy really needs to let this go. I thought the game was fine, got a decent amount of fun from it.

But what happened has happened; no point him being bitter for the rest of his life over it.

I'm no fan of the woke culture but no... it seems to have gotten a fair score. I actually stopped as soon as I encountered kid zombies immediately followed by some psychopath holding down and burning a character.

Nope... that's a darkness I'd rather not continue. Can't blame the woke for this one.

This dude is unhinged.

he's right though. Much better game that given credit for.

@nomither6 Really, example? Is it because I thought the gruff biker looking at his own girlfriend's ass was just fine? That makes me prejudiced and unaccepting of other's opinions? Or is it because I enjoyed shooting the zombies? Whatever... I guess @nomither6 is Mr. Zombie's Rights Justice Warrior now.

I just find Twitter arguments like this odd among professionals.

Makes me glad he left the team tbh...

I played this around the time i played the first spiderman.
I enjoyed days gone way more. And yes i know i am in the minority.
I really dont get the crap this game gets.

@WCB that’s not how this works. That’s not how anything works.

Well that just means he wasn't very good at doing his job, letting one person do so much instead of rotation.

Welp this guy is so ***** salty because people didn't like his game.
Good thing he left imagine working for a guy who NEEDS all this "validation", yikes.

it is refreshing to see game devs speak their mind when they are unfairly judged. the gaming industry is filled to the brink of PR machines and NDA's that prevent the real thoughts and feelings from getting out. sony let the negative press and metacritic scores overshadow the positive aspects of the game as well as a solid foundation for a sequel. sony did the exact same thing with the order:1886 and ready at dawn — i will never forgive them for that. it is OK for a new IP to have some rough edges... that is what sequels are for and the entire video game industry is built around this model. for christ sakes, give you senior level staff a chance to redeem themselves if your lofty expectations were not matched the first time around. many of the day's gone devs were at sony since the original syphon filter and deserve that much!

Days Gone was more enjoyable to me than 70-80% of other Sony exclusives from 2013 - 2020

@NeThZOR I agree, Days gone was more enjoyable than gran turismo, spiderman, death stranding, uncharted, TLOU 2, Sackboy, Returnal etc

Only GOW, Horizon and Tsushima were better in my opinion.

@nomither6 #227 i have to agree with your comment 100% i find the woke and cancell culture to be two of the most oppressive things at the moment. You just are not allowed to be yourselves any more..

@Cloud7794 it sold over 9m copies which isn't that far off from ghost of tsushima, a supposed "very successful" game for sony. sales of days gone were solid for a new IP. sony just didn't like the negative press and metacritic score

@Porco or, more likely, it sold around 9m at a much lower price.

@Porco good point. It's worth remembering that Uncharted 1 wasn't a critical or commercial success.

@PSfan4Life22 because ppl aren’t cool with hearing the truth nowadays

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika I think he’s saying because the main character was like a redneck male and kind of a douchebag the game was reviewed unfairly. If the main character was a butch woman (or anything other than what it actually was), it would have been reviewed more favourably. There’s probably some truth to that. If this game was about a female biker trying to find her girlfriend, we’d probably have two or three sequels by now lol

@MrMeeeseeeks
Spot on.

@Porco I loved The Order 1886 and it makes me sad we’ll never get a sequel.

@nobiwan
Lots of us think exactly the same way. In fact the majority. You did right to get out of the hardcore arguments.

Superbly done game to me. All works well on std ps4 too.

I was going to play Days Gone until I found out that the protag is another gruff white guy that looks at a female derriere. I would however reconsider if a patch would replace gwg with a mixed race non binary maybe a woman maybe a man of special needs that is height and physically challenged and requires a special built motorcycle.

@NoCode23 that made me chuckle 😂

Lol. Wanted to give this another shot but after reading how one of the creators things ‘woke’ is an insult, I’ll delete forever. Tells me all I need to know.

@MrMeeeseeeks I keep seeing this assertion over and over again and yet there hasn't been a single game like the one you described. So it's all crystal ball or wishful thinking at this point. Simply put, we don't know how a game with a gay lead would have performed (commercially and critically).

@NoCode23 how typical.

@naruball well, there is TLoU2 and Horizon - not sure if Aloy is gay (I’m sure it was hinted at in Forbidden West) but they definitely made her face more ‘masculine’ in the sequel (god forbid she be seen as conventionally ‘pretty’). Female leads have to be super strong, determined and smart to be taken seriously, apparently. They certainly can’t be seen as being an object of desire for evil men, hell no. I don’t care if the lead is gay or not but I know for certain that Days Gone with a female lead (gay or straight) would have been reviewed better than it was. It would have been seen as being brave and progressive or whatever. Days Gone with an unapologetically ‘male’ lead was easy for reviewers to dismiss and write-off as a failure. The fact that it resonated so much with actual gamers speaks volumes.

I actually ended up loving my time with days gone, it took a few tries to get into it but once I was in, I was fully strapped in and was along for the ride, actually enjoyed the story and how long it was.

Yes there are bits I'd change but I'd love to see a sequel and what they could of done with that world, such a shame when other games not as good seem to get a sequel green lit.

I'm disappointed I won't see a sequel.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika I’m good. Plenty of other things to play. Put around 10 hours into it and had been thinking about going back, but the director being a douche is good enough for me to ignore it.

I think Days Gone was one of Sony's worst game ever published. And it smeared Sony's reputation as high quality publisher for a while.
Nontheless, he ain't wrong. All that woke weirdos gotta get the f outta the industry. Disliking or even liking someone based on the skin color has simply no place here. Dictating artist what to do is part of fascism and should be declared null and void as harsh as possible.
Plus, not even finishing the game and reviewing it, is just off and wrong. No discussion.

Sounds like the project was overly ambitious for the team and they still delivered which is amazing.
I would like to see them go back to espionage with Siphon filter. Maybe time for a reboot. Something better fit to the team size.

i'm glad someone is finally standing for the devs.

"Controversial comments" he was right in everything he said. "Video games journalist" hahaha. Nothing more useless. And you can tell from the majority of the reviews that they didn't even play it.

It actually would have been decent of you to condemn the reviewers that were being anti white. (I remember quite a few at the time.)You don't want to or your not allowed? Had this been another race I could imagine the non stop outrage

@EMQZ true that's people beating around the bush. It's called anti white

Just leave Days Gone alone. It was a good game with an amazing soundtrack and beautiful story. I enjoyed it from start to finish and replayed it on my PS5. If it was such a bad game why is Sony considering a TV Series or Movie based on it? Just greenlight a PS5 sequel and give those people a chance to truly shine.

@get2sammyb Since Musk took it over its even worse the conspiracy nonsense goes way overboard.

Next one in the series
Programmers Gone !

@PSfan4Life22 with the effort they put into that game, I never thought that they were a bad company I played the game and LOVED IT, never thought about the "white biker guy thing" It just never was an issue with me. He was mad that SONY didnt put any steam behind the game, it was actually a wonderful experience if you played it.. most people didnt play it..

Days gone was average at best

Days gone was a awesome game on a PS4 pro, it ran fine and was one of my favourite games that year I played it (early 2020) i don't understand why people hate on it, it's a solid 8 or 9/10 game for when it was released.

I think it's fair for creators to share their view of the situation. It's not just about people having “nice” things to say or staying silent. Things didn't work out, the directors paid the heavy price or got shown out the door. I'm glad he spoke up.

I believe critics sometimes forget that in reality they don't matter much. It's about the creators and pushing the industry to be better (publishers, platforms, creative team's).