Days Gone Developer Says: “We were made to feel it was a huge disappointment”

Developer Jeff Ross must feel like Deacon when he thinks about Sony and Days Gone.

Mutated almost three years ago Days Gone a big surprise hit for many in the GamePro community and we were also very impressed by Biker Deacon’s “zombie” adventure. But internally, according to former Sony Bend developer Jeff Ross, the success was apparently viewed quite differently, treating the third-person shooter as a “big disappointment”, like Ross announced in a tweet. The trigger for his public disappointment is another PlayStation exclusive: Ghost of Tsushima.

Days Gone a huge disappointment for studio management

Background: A few days ago there was Ghost of Tsushima-Developer Sucker Punch announces that the Samurai Adventure has sold over eight million units. For an exclusive game that does not come from Nintendo, a quite respectable brand.

on the message Ross spoke up and classified the success from his point of view:

Ross goes on to say that they had planned a fantastic sequel, but at least it was won’t come any time soon, despite commercial success.

But what are the reasons for the different treatment of Ghost of Tsushima and Days Gone? Ross goes into the comments under his tweet, among other things, on the video game press, says that test ratings did not help them.

Units sold unequal success

If we look at the pure numbers, see eight million units each for Ghost of Tsushima and Days Gone, the question naturally arises why the two games are apparently treated so differently. After all, it is now almost certain that we will again be able to plunge into gripping sword duels with Samurai Jin in the coming years.

A question of expectations:

To judge the pure sales figures as success or failure makes little sense. The decisive factor is the sales expectations with which Sony sent a game like Days Gone into development. Days Gone is a zombie action shooter with an American setting, a type of game that attracts many players.

Ghost of Tsushima, on the other hand, relies on Asian sword fighting, a story that is strange and mystical to many, and also raises a special artistic claim due to its art style but also the Kurosawa mode, and is far more special from the point of view of the pure setting. It is likely that in the case of Days Gone, Sony hoped for far higher sales figures in a direct comparison due to the type of game alone.

Ghost of Tsushima relies on picturesque flower meadows, generally relies on an art design that is rather special for the mainstream.

Days Gone release status:

Ross indirectly criticizes the gaming press in his statements, saying that it has not really contributed to its success. Days Gone currently has a score of 71 points on Metacritic.

But what is very important here: Days Gone was not in good technical condition for a Sony Exclusive, even after it was postponed. We also had to devalue the action game by five points when it was released, especially due to numerous technical deficiencies in the second half of the game. This point can also be angry with Sony.

Sales figures unequal to satisfied customers

And the last point we want to make here is the difference between buying a product and actually being satisfied with it – Cyberpunk 2077 as a prime example. Days Gone received a user score of 8.4 on Metacritic, but this score should not be equated with general customer satisfaction.

Many who bought Days Gone for the release and stumbled across the technical deficiencies may well have a worse opinion of the game than buyers of Ghost of Tsushima, for example. And many of these people are not on platforms like Metacritic.

All of these reasons can be reason for Sony to rate both games so differently. Feel free to write us in the comments how you classify the statement by Jeff Ross.