Image via Bend Studio

Days Gone Game director Jeff Ross has tweeted a response to this week'south announcement of Ghost of Tsushima'southward success, and he doesn't sound all that happy about information technology. During its CES 2022 press conference earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment proudly appear that Sucker Punch'due south open world action-gamble Ghost of Tsushima had sold over 8 meg units since launching in July 2022. Introducing new get-go-party IP is always a high-risk move for a platform holder, so when information technology pays off so spectacularly, it'south a existent cause for celebration. Only Jeff Ross won't exist joining the party.

In his tweet, Ross insists that Days Gone achieved roughly the aforementioned sales in approximately the same time frame as Ghost of Tsushima. Yet, the game was regarded equally a "big disappointment" by senior management at Sony. Days Gone did indeed sell about as many copies equally Ghost of Tsushima, only there are two major differences that probably explain Sony's disappointment, and the fact that Days Gone has not spawned a sequel.

Starting time, Days Gone was not well-received past critics, earning a mediocre 71 on Metacritic and getting a pretty severe panning from some major outlets. The general consensus was that information technology was a waste matter of potential that, after a promising first, got boring pretty speedily. But 8 million sales is eight 1000000 sales, right? Well, non really, no. As Days Gone'due south creative managing director John Garvin pointed out on David Jaffe's podcast final year, 8 1000000 sales isn't that good if a big chunk of those sales come up afterward the game's cost is slashed. Ghost of Tsushima presumably fabricated well-nigh of its sales at full toll. While Days Gone, given those mixed reviews, required price cuts to persuade customers to have a punt on information technology.