John Garvin, the writer and creative director of Days Gone, believes that the game received low critic scores due to “woke reviewers.” The former developer at Bend Studio also blames the poor reception on technical bugs and “reviewers who couldn’t be bothered to actually play the game.” Days Gone released on April 2019 on PS4 and has an overall Metascore of 71, which is relatively low for a Sony first-party game.
Critics call out Days Gone dev’s “woke reviewers” defense
Garvin sent a tweet (preserved above as an image in case it gets deleted later) providing three reasons why Days Gone was panned by critics, in a response to a fan of the game who doesn’t understand how it didn’t receive “universal praise.” The third bullet point is the most contentious and controversial, as he writes: “And three, it had woke reviewers who couldn’t handle a gruff white biker looking at this date’s ass.”
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has responded to the charge, humorously replying that “This is spot on — as we all know, video games starring gruff white guys never get positive reviews.” He has also clapped back, claiming that Gavin had thrown the game’s engineers under the bus in the past to evade criticism.
This isn’t the first time former Days Gone devs have complained about the game’s low scores, with one developer stating earlier this year that the Metacritic score should be at least an 80. Sam Witwer, the actor for protagonist Deacon St. John, also suggested that some reviewers didn’t play the game or rushed through it. PSLS gave Days Gone a 9/10 in our review.
