Rumour: Days Gone Developer Bend Studio's Next Game To Be Open World With Vehicles
With recent news that the Oregon-based Sony first party developer Bend Studio isn’t working on a follow-up to their 2019 post-apocalyptic adventure title Days Gone, it seems the studio’s next title could similarly be an open-world adventure title featuring vehicles, according to recent job listings.
Originally reported by GamingRoute, Bend Studio are advertising new job openings at the company, with one most notably being a Senior Environmental Artist. While Environmental Artist roles are quite commonplace with game development, what’s notable is the job description does hint at what the studio have planned for their next title.
The job listing mentions “Create detailed organic and hard surface 3D models for an open world environment” as part of the role’s key responsibilities, with mention of a specialized focus on “creating detailed 3D models including weapons, vehicles and environment assets.”
While this doesn’t outright confirm what the studio is working on nor whether or not these vehicles will be drivable, the confirmation of an open-world setting in combination of vehicles mentioned would no doubt suggest drivable vehicles as one of the game’s main methods of traversing the world.
Days Gone featured vehicles to an extent, with the only drivable vehicle being the protagonists motorbike - which could be customized with new parts, skins and performance upgrades throughout the story. Other vehicles in the game were used to scavenge gameplay items from, such as fuel and ammo.
News broke lost week that despite being commercially successful, a Days Gone 2 pitch fell through at Sony and the studio had been relegated to assisting on Naughty Dog projects including a new Uncharted game until recently. The studio is now said to be working on a new IP not related to Days Gone.
If you are interested in what this excellent developer’s previous title is like, Days Gone is currently free for PlayStation Plus members during the month of April and part of the PlayStation Plus Collection for PS5 owners. Days Gone will also be making its way to PC via Steam and Epic Games on May 18th, 2021.
(Source: GamingRoute, Bend Studio)