Bend Studio Pitched An ‘Open-World Resistance’ Game After Days Gone 2 Was Rejected

Former Bend Studio director Jeff Ross revealed earlier this week that Days Gone sold more than Ghost of Tsushima, but was not praised like it and instead seen as a disappointment by Sony and PlayStation. Discussing that with former God of War and Twisted Metal director David Jaffe on a recent livestream, Ross also revealed some other pitches Bend Studio made after a sequel to Days Gone was rejected. 

As first reported by Video Games Chronicle, Ross said he was especially interested in rebooting PlayStation’s long-dormant Resistance series, which was created by Insomniac Games back in the PlayStation 3 generation. Like the pitch to Days Gone 2, though, it was rejected. 

“The pitch I was making was, ‘open-world Resistance would be f**king rad,’” Ross told Jaffe. “There were all of these open-world loops that we figured out…it almost wrote itself with Resistance: there were so many aspects of that property that lent itself to open-world gameplay. But they weren’t interested in that either. I don’t know how well it sold.”

Ross also revealed that after the pitch for Days Gone 2, which would have included a “shared universe with co-op play,” was rejected, he was asked if Bend Studio could reboot Syphon Filter. However, Ross didn’t really have any interest in such a thing. 

“It was just an ask: ‘Are there any other IPs that we have that we can use?’ and the only other IP was Syphon Filter,” Ross said. “But honestly, I have zero ideas on how to reboot Syphon Filter. I was not interested in that at all. 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.” 

It seems a reboot of any kind was not in the works for Bend Studio, as last year it revealed that it is working on a new IP. While waiting to see what that is, check out our thoughts on the studio’s latest in Game Informer’s Days Gone review. Read about the PlayStation 5 performance upgrades Days Gone received after that. 

[Source: Video Games Chronicle]

Would you rather see a new IP from Bend Studio or an open-world Resistance game? Let us know in the comments below!