Days Gone Director Says It Sold Over 8 Million Units in a Year and a Half - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 January 2022 / 8,955 Views
Days Gone game director Jeff Ross via Twitter revealed that when he left developer Bend Studio the action-adventure game has sold over eight million units in a year and a half, He also said it has sold over a million units on Steam.
"At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies. It's since gone on to sell more, and then a million+ on Steam," said Ross. "Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment."
Days Gone released for the PlayStation 4 on April 26, 2019 and for PC on May 18, 2021.
At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies. It's since gone on to sell more, and then a million+ on Steam. Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment. #daysgone #PlayStation https://t.co/KMZr2pGe9r
— Jeff Ross (@JakeRocket) January 5, 2022
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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One of the best examples of a sleeper hit I have seen in years.
An absolute blast to play and a lot more deserving of the sales it has already acquired. Don't listen to some of the negative reviews out there Days Gone is a great example of zombie/survival horror and open world done right.
-FREAKER NINJA APPROVED-
Really?! Are those numbers for real?!
Why would sonyhide those huge numbers?!
Sony cares way too much about metacritic compared to most other publishers.
Every publisher on earth would care equally about a 71 on meta. Lets not kid ourselves here.
Ubisoft continues with the Ghost Recon series after the critical underperformance of Wildlands and Breakpoint do they not? On the other end metacritic definitely didn't save Dishonored. Because the games still sell and they want to make moeny. Sony has a game that sold more than their "big hit" they are showing off and they don't want anyone to know. It really is just sony where critical perception takes PRECEDENCE over sales.
Sony never gave official numbers, the site he uses gives trophy data, not sales data, and it is assumed that many are sales, but are also rentals and used copies etc. And the sales it did get at the time were from heavily discounted copies as noted by the devs at the time.
There is nothing concrete to base what Sony does or doesn't care about off of this situation, it is all assumption.
And if this were true "It really is just sony where critical perception takes PRECEDENCE over sales." we wouldn't have Killzone 2.
It was a shame it got that score because of a buggy game at launch. The post patch game was amazing
Perhaps it’s launch window sales were below expectations? From what I remember reading last spring, a few issues with Days Gone ended up getting Bend in the doghouse:
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The game was poorly polished on launch, uncharacteristic for Sony first party titles. This contributed to but was not the only reason for number 2:
- The game reviewed below Sony’s own internal expectations. A first party title for any of the 3 console manufacturers getting below an 80 meta critic is unheard of in the modern era and Days Gone is sitting at a 71. The only first party game off the top of my head from any of the big 3 that I am aware of that has scored lower is Crackdown
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- The game was in development for 6 or 7 years and apparently had to be restarted multiple times
Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 say hi... also i'm sure there are more 1º party games in the 7.1 Meta line, but i just can't remember now.
side note: Anything form Nintendo on the 7.1 line? i'm not sure, many Nintendo games are 2º party and only published by them. Big N "true 1º party" is rather small compared to Playstation and Xbox.
SoT’s post launch turnaround kind of made me forget how rough it’s launch was, but you are correct
yeah, i heard they recovered well! I still think the game is bad, but that's just me and my hate for the "first perso gameplay" that resembles Skyrim's gameplay, something I really don't like.
Note: forgive me those who enjoy the combat and gameplay of Skyrim, I consider it a disaster by today's standards, but I respect you who might come to like it. again, forgive me...
I can't speak to how well Sea of Thieves is, because I don't play it, but it sure has a lot of engagement. Both on Xbox and on PC (and not just on PC Game Pass, also on Steam).
What I CAN speak to is State of Decay 2. That game has also added a tonne of post-launch content, and is now VERY good. And all the new State of Decay 2 DLC has been added to the Game Pass version, meaning you're getting the complete game there, not just the "standard" game, which is excellent support on the part of both Undead Labs and Microsoft. I'm playing it again tonight. :D
SoD is a third person game, not 1st person, and for at least the last year and a half it has been in really great shape. I have 2160/2400G at the moment.
It's basically only the Daybreak horde mode which sucks... the main sandbox maps and heartland campaign are really well done, and the game is seriously challenging on Lethal, too.
I agree with you, except I actually enjoy the Daybreak mode too. :)
Haven’t played Days Gone but I do agree with you on Skyrim.
I always thought soT was a highly regarded game.
Also I just looked it up, Mario Golf Super Rush is sitting at exactly 70 on metacritic but that’s the only Nintendo one I could find under 71
Not made by Nintendo 1º party, only published by Nintendo.
True Nintendo 1º party is a bit "tricky", like main line pokemon games ( Red, gold, saphire, pearl, black...). Many think these games are 1º party, but they are not made by Nintendo, only published by Big N. (Gamefreak is the developer, they are nintendo 2º party)
Oh that’s true, I got mixed up
Nintendo owns Pokemon IP, so it's 1st party.
Nintendo doesn't own the Pokemon IP. The Pokemon IP is owned by The Pokemon Company. Nintendo is a part-owner of The Pokemon Company, but only owns 32% of it.
They own every pokemon in the series. If Gamefreak or The Pokemon Company want to make anything related to pokemon to non Nintendo systems, they must ask Nintendo.
They not only are partial owners of Pokémon but have a whole line of games that they own.
https://zenmarket.jp/en/blog/post/10040/does-nintendo-own-pokemon
Even if you just go by just Nintendo developed games there are plenty with below 80 metascores like Animal Crossing City Folk and AC Amiibo Festival, Arms, Labo, New Super Mario Bros. 2 etc. It would just eliminate the mostly below
80 rated Nintendo series like Mario Party, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Sports games, Kirby and Yoshi.
This is sony's fault. They shouldn't have let it launch in a buggy state, and gave it more time before release.
I don't know how bad it was on launch, since I played it a year later. But what I played was an amazing game.
Maybe they wanted to distance themselves because of how buggy it was at launch. It really got hit hard in reviws because of that. If I remember right they were dropping the price pretty substantially not long after release which also might lead to much higher than usual sales.
Yes, after the bugs got ironed out people became much more fond of it, I just remember the launch being pretty rocky.
It's most likely a revenue thing, the sales numbers would justify a sequel easily but the issue is when most of those sales came as Sony often heavily drops the prices of their games after launch window to boost sales so judging by the notorious comment by one of the studio's members about buying at full price the majority of sales likely came after meaning a far smaller return per sale leading to that event between them and Sony.
For reference GOW's first 10m sales was at full price and returned $500m before the price drop while at 50% of full price you'd make $250 off 10m but bare in mind AAA development costs now days range from like $70-$100m plus so the revenue you make is not just for profit but to also fund future games so you're not just paying for the costs of the game you're selling but also loading up the budget for a future game. So it depends on what price point most of DG's sales came at.
This is likely why Sony have acted this way as DG is likely over 10m at this point which isn't far from the likes of HZD which is being treated differently by them in comparison.
Pasted from Rol's post Apparently these two figures were based on (estimated) player counts using trophy stats and Jeff Ross can't tell the difference between player counts and actual sales.
Congratulations, a good game that is underapreciated.
So definitely more than 10 millions alone on PS4 by now.
Good numbers.
It sold over 8m before it released on pc. So it's likely sold 10m on ps4 by now
The game came out in 2019, for it to be up to 10 million on PS4 now it would have had to have sold 2 million copies in 2021 alone. That seems exceedingly unlikely even with generous sales
Game was released April 2019. Sold over 8m in 1 and half year so that should be around end of october 2020? It had the generous sales during holidays of 2020 and a full 2021 to sell 2m. Seems more likely than not it has sold 10m by now
I'm old enough to remember a time when only three software packages had sold a million copies in the history of the world (I believe they were Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Flight Simulator). Yep, confirmed, I'm old. :)
That's a lot for a new IP with an average critical reception. Sony must have sky-high expectations for their first party games.
He referred to local management and we don't know the return on investment, those roi numbers might not have been enough for a sequel since these figures seem to have have been heavily driven by sale prices and the decision not to follow up with an immediate sequel was made fairly early on , and that is backed up by John Garvin who was the creative director and lead writer for Days Gone, he blamed the lack of full priced sales for them not getting the green light for a sequel, also some of the noise surrounding the studio and Sony seems to stem from them after completion iirc not being to happy with being tasked with helping ND finish up The last of us 2,, because management thought the game had earned them enough status to do what they wanted, still although they didn't get a Days Gone sequel they did get a new IP approved that they are working on, now all we know about it is its an open world game .
Sony care more about metacritic and revenue than just sales
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/04/days_gone_director_on_skipped_sequel_if_you_love_a_game_buy_it_at_fing_full_price
https://www.resetera.com/threads/jeff-ross-days-gone-sold-over-8-million-on-ps4-in-19-months-and-local-sony-studio-management-made-us-feel-like-it-was-a-big-disappointment.535799/
Why would anyone downvote you for a simple statement, THAT YOU ALSO BACKED UP WITH A SOURCE?! Man, a fickle bunch of down-voters out there! :P Well, I gave you an up-vote. thumbs up
They can't handle the reality
Sony's own expectations seem a bit draconian. This game is criminally underrated and deserves a sequel. Okay, it was buggy at launch, so just do better next time.
What I don't get is how sony would let a game release in a state they aren't happy with. Surely they must assess every first party game before it launches.
Wow, phenomenal sales for Days Gone. I adored this game when I played it, this just makes me even more disappointed that Sony seems to not want to fund a sequel.
The game is that good, I didn't want or expect a sequel. What could they possibly do gameplay wise or even story wise for a sequel? The game was lenghty and felt complete.
They're better off making a new game, set in a different universe.
What could they do different? I'm not sure off the top of my head but plenty of games get sequels that do nearly nothing new. The fact that they pitched a sequel to Sony though tells me they had some kind of inkling in what they wanted to do though.
Do the official numbers support this?
Were there official numbers?
8 million but at what price? Not positive but I think the price dropped quickly on this game. I know I picked up a digital copy for $20.
There is a joke about 'sold below expectations' that fits here. For context that is around the ballpark of Luigi's Mansion 3 sales for a comparison with another exclusive.
Oh hey I remember that one...glad to see an old story resurface.
He kind of has a point though. People rely too much on metacritic , or the " i'll wait for it to go down in price" , if it's not rated 90+ on metacritic.
