For the past few months, Sony's PS Plus offerings could be compared to a boulder rolling down a hill; it doesn't seem anything is going to stop Sony from offering hit after hit on PlayStation Plus. Perhaps this is so PS Plus remains in the realm of discussion alongside Xbox Game Pass, perhaps this is to continue building hype for PS5, and perhaps someday that boulder will hit a wall. That day, whenever it comes, is not in April 2021 though.
What PS Plus often gets right is striking the tone and relying upon successful patterns. For example, the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 saw Sony adding one big game/one niche game every month. It worked, but as Sony seemingly used PS Plus to hype up the PS5, it moved to a new pattern: broad appeal. Each game offered from mid-to-fall 2020 through now has been about solid games with a multitude of genres.
In other words, it aims to have something pleasing to a lot of people with different tastes. PS Plus Games for April 2021 almost break this pattern, given that two of them are zombie games, but they are different enough in tone that the appeal mostly stands. For April 2020, subscribers get PS5 launch day game Oddworld: Soulstorm, a action adventure survival horror game Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War. Days Gone's inclusion, reception, and more have proven to be rather ironic, though.
Days Gone 2 News and The Changes at Bend Studio
First off, its inclusion in PS Plus isn't the only reason Days Gone, a 2019 game, has made headlines this month. Recently, a report from Bloomberg has indicated that Sony wants to shift away from smaller, riskier games to focus on its big blockbuster hits like God of War and Spider-Man. In and of itself, that's a lot to unpack, but it seems one of the first victims of this mentality is actually Days Gone. Deacon St. John's journey wasn't perfect, resulting in a rather lukewarm reception at launch. That said, many consider it to be one of the most underrated hidden gems of the PS4 era. For Sony, though, it seems it wasn't about what Days Gone could do, but what it did.
The same report reveals that Sony shot down a Days Gone 2 pitch made by Bend Studio back in 2019. In other words, the game's franchise potential was dead in the water before fans even knew it and barely after it got off the ground. Since this was revealed, many have expressed disappointment in this decision, while others have praised the original and made arguments for a Days Gone 2. The love for the franchise has been so strong lately that, while the Days Gone director has not publicly confirmed or denied this, he has been "liking" the news and reaction posts to this on social media. He states that it is in just appreciation of the love for the game, so fans should only take that at face value.
While it seems this news may be the final nail in the coffin for any Days Gone 2, with some even pointing at a couple of high-profile devs leaving Bend Studio as further hints, it's not all necessarily doom and gloom. It seems, after Days Gone, Bend Studio was assisting Naughty Dog on an Uncharted game, but fearing it would become part of Naughty Dog, the studio asked to be removed and allowed to pursue a new IP. This was seemingly granted, and while it may not be Days Gone 2, the studio is seemingly getting to work on something it wants to do. A lot of this remains to be seen, of course, but this new IP (as with all new IP) also show that Sony isn't inherently avoiding all risk, at least for now.
Days Gone on PS Plus is Counter Evidence of That (Ironically)
The fact that this news roll around at the same time as Days Gone is added to PS Plus seems like a really random coincidence, or perhaps it's not. However, the news around Days Gone and its potential sequel flies right in the face of its inclusion on PS Plus, ultimately making its addition here ironic for two major reasons. The first is the most obvious: if Sony uses PS Plus to generate hype every month, if (and of course it does) Sony cares about PS Plus' reputation, why would it include a game that it has deemed unworthy of a sequel? It could be that Sony imagined it as a "filler" game for the service, one worthy of just being its own cog in the machine, but nothing more.
After all, the other two choices are big ones too. Again, Oddworld: Soulstorm may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is effectively a free launch day PS5 game. That has and always will catch a bunch of eyes. At the same time, Zombie Army 4 finds itself in a similar critical reception to Days Gone, but the game is also one of those hidden gem situations. It's certainly not a bad game, and for those who want to kill nazi zombies (as many gamers tend to love), it's worth checking out. Regardless of the decision-making and reasoning, as no one that's not a fly on that wall could remotely speculate about, it's ironic that a game arrives on PS Plus the same month that a report about its future breaks.
Adding to that irony is the second reason: the sheer reception around it. PS Plus is exciting for fans every month, but Days Gone was on another level entirely. Not only was it trending on social media the day of the announcement, but many fans shared their appreciation of Days Gone and really pushed for others to check it out. Just after fans are praising this PlayStation exclusive, it breaks that Sony just didn't really have the faith in it to continue it. Overall, that may not be enough for Sony to reconsider its decision and Bend Studio seems to be moving on, but Days Gone on PS Plus has proven to be both popular and ironic.
PS Plus subscribers get a handful of free games every month.
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