Jeff Ross has had plenty to say of late. The former director at Sony owned Bend Studio took to Twitter this week as news broke of Ghost of Tsushima’s sales success, bemoaning Sony’s decision to cancel any planned sequels to Days Gone which seemingly sold just as well. Now, Ross has shed further light on a few other projects that were thrown around following the reception to Days Gone, and his eventual departure from the company.
Interviewed by fellow game developer David Scott Jaffe (of Twisted Metal fame), Ross confirmed Bend Studio pitched the idea of an open-world Resistance sequel, following Sony’s lack of interest in continuing Days Gone in any capacity, saying the former Insomniac Games’ IP had “so many aspects…that lent itself to open-world gameplay.” Bend Studio had previously worked on the series via Resistance: Retribution on the PlayStation Portable back in 2009.
Sadly that idea was put to pasture by Sony, who were seemingly more interested in rebooting Syphon Filter according to Ross, though there were very few ideas on how that would have come about. “It was almost like a keep-them-busy-type of question: ‘Hey guys, why don’t you come up with something for Syphon Filter while we figure out what we’re confident in pitching.’ So, I don’t think it was ever genuine,” Ross explained.
Though we may never see the likes of Days Gone, Resistance or Syphon Filter again, Sony did confirm last year that Bend Studio were working on a new potentially open-world IP for PS5. Days Gone, meanwhile, launched on PC via Steam last year and currently sits on a ‘Very Positive’ review rating from players, following its debut on PS4 in 2019.
Known on the internet as Kartanym, Mark has been in and out of the gaming scene since what feels like forever, growing up on Nintendo and evolving through the advent of PC first person shooters, PlayStation and virtual reality. He'll try anything at least once and considers himself the one true king of Tetris by politely ignoring the world records.
