Days Gone's director, Jeff Ross, has claimed that a sequel to the game would likely have launched last month if the studio had just "stuck to its guns".
Sony held its first PlayStation Showcase in two years yesterday, giving the world a first look at Spider-Man 2, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Dragon's Dogma 2, and more. One thing that it didn't have much of, however, was first-party games, as it was really only Spider-Man, Marathon, and two CGI trailers for some multiplayer projects, making 2023 look a little light on PlayStation exclusives so far.
That could have nearly been a different story, however. Over on Twitter, former Sony Bend developer and Days Gone director Jeff Ross noted that PlayStation Showcases make him sad because they remind him of the cancelled game, noting that it likely would have released last month if the studio had "stuck to its guns".
Ross said, "I get a little bummed out from these PlayStation Showcase shows because they only remind me we could of had Days Gone 2 out a month ago if we'd have just stuck to our guns". In the comments underneath his post, Ross noted that too much time has passed since the original to try again and that over 90 people have left the team who worked on the original.
Ross' comments seem to indicate that Days Gone 2 would have been targeting an April 2023 release date when it was first entering production. However, since the pitch for Days Gone 2 was actually put in around 2019, it's likely that the game would have been impacted by the pandemic if it had been approved and would have been unlikely to hit the date that Ross is suggesting it would have.
That's in the alternate universe where Days Gone 2 was approved, however. It was revealed back in 2021 that Sony had rejected a pitch for a sequel to Days Gone, which would have apparently included a co-op mode of some kind. Not much has been revealed about the project, beyond some of the claims that Ross and director John Garvin have made in the past, but Ross does mention in a recent tweet that the team wanted to "double down on all the cool world systems to create some great emergent gameplay".
As for the team left at Sony Bend now, we know that the studio is currently working on a brand-new IP with multiplayer elements that uses some of the mechanics from Days Gone. Although it was a no-show at the PlayStation Showcase, Sony Bend's community manager Kevin McAllister noted that the team was "still cooking" and that it'd "make it worth the wait".