Days Gone developer says it doesn’t share John Garvin’s view on why it was poorly received.
A statement from Bend Studios on Twitter has addressed the recent outburst from the Days Gone director, who blamed “woke reviewers” for its critical reception.
“We are aware of the comments made by our previous Creative Director on Days Gone regarding his personal view on the critical reception of our intellectual property,” it confirmed. “Bend Studio does not share his sentiment, nor does it reflect the views of our team.”
— Bend Studio (@BendStudio) December 8, 2022
Garvin’s recent Twitter outburst (which has since been deleted) laid the blame squarely at reviewers who “couldn’t handle a gruff white biker looking at his date’s ass”.
Additionally, he blamed technical issues as well as streaming and frame rate issues.
“Our studio is immensely proud of the work we accomplished on Days Gone and are thankful to every developer who poured their heart and soul into it,” continued the studio. “We are incredibly humbled by the support of our Days Gone community and we will continue to share your enthusiasm for our world and characters as we look toward the future.”
This isn’t the first time Garvin has expressed some pretty controversial opinions. In fact, by his own admission, he was fired from Bend for being “a disruptive personality”.
Just last year, he told gamers that if you love a game, you should “buy it at full f**king price. He also said that people shouldn’t be upset if they don’t get a sequel to a game if they aren’t willing to pay full price for it.
After departing Bend Studio, Garvin has since teamed up with Michael Mumbauer to launch Liithos – a new studio that’s currently working on a AAA web 3.0 title called Ashfall.
IGN’s own Days Gone review gave it 6.5/10 and said: “Days Gone feels bloated, like a movie that goes on for an hour longer than it needs to or should’ve. It’s messy and confused but peppered with genuinely thrilling encounters with rampaging hordes of zombies and occasionally breathless firefights. There’s a good game in here somewhere, but it’s buried in a meandering storyline, repetitive missions, and just too much obligatory stuff to do without an eye on the smaller details that could have given it much more character. Some fine-tuning and editing could have removed the tedium and celebrated what makes this game unique and interesting, but Days Gone rides strictly down the middle of the dusty road and never finds its rhythm.”
Want to read more about Days Gone? Check out the upcoming Days Gone movie that’s in the works as well as how the Days Gone sequel would have taken a more technical direction.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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