| Days Gone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Bend Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Director(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Darren Yager |
| Designer(s) | Ron Allen |
| Programmer(s) | John Hoffman |
| Artist(s) | Donald Yatomi |
| Writer(s) | John Garvin |
| Composer(s) | Nathan Whitehead |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Days Gone is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game was released for the PlayStation 4 in April 2019. A Windows port was released in May 2021.
Days Gone is set in post-apocalyptic Oregon two years after the start of a pandemic that turned a portion of humanity into vicious zombie-like creatures. Former outlaw-turned-drifter Deacon St. John discovers his wife Sarah, having been assumed dead, may still be alive and goes on a quest to find her. The game is played from a third-person perspective in which the player can explore an open world environment. Players can use firearms, melee weapons, and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend themselves against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures known as Freakers. A major game mechanic is Deacon's motorcycle, which is used as the player character's main mode of transportation.
Days Gone was Bend Studio's first open-world project, its first original property since Syphon Filter (1999), and its first development project for home consoles after spending decades working on spinoff games for handheld consoles. The game's development took approximately six years; Bend Studio expanded nearly three-fold to support it. Major sources of inspiration for Days Gone were World War Z, The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy. The game was unveiled at E3 2016; its release was originally planned for 2018 but was delayed several times.
Upon release, Days Gone received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the game's mission design and technical issues but praised the graphics, artificial intelligence, and Sam Witwer's performance as Deacon, while the story received a mixed reception. The game had sold 7.32 million units by February 2022. In 2021, it was reported that the development team had unsuccessfully pitched a sequel to Sony.