Days Gone writer says if you love a game, you should buy at full price
"Don't complain if a game doesn't get a sequel if it wasn't supported at launch."
The writer and creative director of Days Gone says that players shouldn't "complain if a game doesn't get a sequel" if they didn't buy it "at f-cking full price".
In an interview on David Jaffe's YouTube channel, John Garvin was asked if the game's debut on Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service had sparked new interest in the title.
"I do have an opinion on something that your audience may find of interest, and it might piss some of them off," Garvin said (thanks, VGC). "If you love a game, buy it at f-cking full price. I can't tell you how many times I've seen gamers say 'yeah, I got that on sale, I got it through PS Plus, whatever'.
"Don't complain if a game doesn't get a sequel if it wasn't supported at launch," Garvin added. "It's like, God of War got whatever number millions of sales at launch and, you know, Days Gone didn't. Just speaking for me personally as a developer - I don't work for Sony - I don't know what the numbers are."
Garvin also opened up on the impact piracy has on game development.
"I can tell you that when we were doing [Syphon Filter] Dark Mirror [on PSP], we got so f-cked on Dark Mirror because piracy was a thing and Sony wasn't really caught up on what piracy was doing to sales," Garvin explained.
"And we would show them torrents, a torrent site had 200,000 copies of Dark Mirror being downloaded. If I remember it right - the numbers could be wrong - but regardless, I was pissed about it then, I was like, 'this is money out of my pocket'.
"So I think the uptick in engagement with the game is not as important as, did you buy the game at full price? Because if you did, then that's supporting the developers directly."
ICYMI, PlayStation soon-not-to-be-exclusive Days Gone launches for PC on 18th May, and a new trailer recently showed off how it looks.
The PC version of the post-apocalyptic motorbike game includes 21:9 ultra-wide monitor support, an unlocked frame-rate and hordes of Freakers (don't call them zombies) up to 500 in size. Environmental details and foliage draw distances have been improved, and the game's photo mode now features a "new super resolution", Sony said.
Last week, a Bloomberg report broke the news that Days Gone 2 wouldn't be happening due to the original's lengthy development and mixed reception, something Eurogamer had also heard. A team within Sony Bend is now apparently assisting Naughty Dog with a multiplayer project.