Two of Days Gone's best-known faces have departed from Sony Bend Studios. Game director Jeff Ross revealed on Twitter that he would be leaving the studio behind the zombie post-apocalyptic sandbox, adding that he was looking forward to "new challenges" in the future:
This week is my last at @PlayStation and @BendStudio. I'm incredibly proud of all the games I got to make, but also looking forward to new challenges ahead. I'll post about my plans later, but I'll be moving to Chicago once COVID calms down. #JeffsGone #DaysGone
— Jeff Ross #DaysGone #PlayStation5 #Sony (@JakeRocket) December 1, 2020
Writer and director John Garvin went into more detail in his own Twitter farewell thread, explaining that he had been absent from Sony Bend Studios for over a year already. "Hi all, a quick announcement: I haven’t spoken about this before for various reasons, but I’m no longer with Bend Studio and haven’t been for over a year," Garvin tweeted, explaining that he had been focused on personal projects since the game was released.
Hi all, a quick announcement: I haven’t spoken about this before for various reasons, but I’m no longer with Bend Studio and haven’t been for over a year. Since Days Gone shipped, I’ve been focusing on personal projects: painting, writing, publishing ... (1
— John Garvin (@John_Garvin) December 1, 2020
... and generally, enjoying a break from the game industry. For those that don’t know, I moved to Bend, Oregon in 1997, and began work as art director for Eidetic, a tiny 12 person studio headed by the legendary Marc Blank (creator of Zork). (2
— John Garvin (@John_Garvin) December 1, 2020
Days Gone arrived in 2019 for the PS4, and since then it has received a PS5 update that adds up to 60fps with dynamic 4K resolution. It's also part of the PS Plus Collection on PS5, which includes a curated list of first-party games such as like God of War and The Last of Us Remastered along with third-party games like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Monster Hunter: World.
In GameSpot's Days Gone review, critic Kallie Plagge said, "Riding a souped-up motorcycle through the world and taking out zombie nests and hordes is satisfying in the way that completing open-world checklists often is, but by the end, you're left to wonder what the point of it all was."
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