Former Bend Studio staffer and Days Gone director John Garvin claims that, in his opinion, “Metacritic score is everything” to Sony.
Last week, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that Sony cancelled a Days Gone 2 pitch, following which a number of the game’s developers left Bend Studio. Garvin, who resigned shortly after the game’s release, made the aforementioned comment in a video interview with God of War creator, David Jaffe, who runs his own YouTube channel.
“This is just the reality of Sony,” said Garvin. “If you’re the creative director on a franchise and your game is coming in at a 70, you’re not gonna be a creative director on that franchise for very long.”
Garvin then went on to take the blame for Days Gone not appealing to a wider audience, and bizarrely suggested that the game may have done better if it leaned towards being woke and politically correct.
“I completely agree that it was on me and Jeff, and the guys at Bend Studio, and on all of us to create something that would have wider appeal, that would avoid some of the pitfalls that were kind of self-inflicted,” he continued. “I’m not saying in any way that we should have all bought into political correctness and become woke and done all the things to satisfy social justice warriors – I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that as a company making products for millions of people, it’s on us to make sure that it is profitable and also appeal to a wide enough audience to grow the brand.”
Whether Days Gone 2 will see the light of day or not remains to be seen.
