Sony Bend Is Developing a New IP with ‘Deep Open-World Systems’

PlayStation Worldwide Studios head Herman Hulst has explained in an interview at the PlayStation.Blog that new franchises and IP are an important aspect of the PlayStation brand. In particular, he mentioned that Sony’s Bend Studio is working on a new IP with “deep open-world systems” stemming from work done while creating Days Gone.

“And you know, Bend Studio is working on a very exciting new IP that they’re very, very passionate about,” said Hulst. “They’re building on the deep open-world systems that they developed with Days Gone. So I’m really happy for Bend Studio.” Unfortunately, he didn’t note any more details about the new game, but now it’s all but confirmed that Sony Bend is not developing a sequel to 2019’s Days Gone right now.

Days Gone became a topic of discussion back in April when Bloomberg first reported that a sequel was rejected back in 2019. While it was financially successful, the reviews were mixed, and that played a part in the overall decision. Sony Bend also briefly assisted Naughty Dog on a project but then requested to be moved off from it. The studio subsequently started working on a new game, which is presumably the same one that Hulst is referring to in the interview.

It might be a while before we see any sort of information about Sony Bend’s new game, but in the meantime, the studio released Days Gone on PC a couple weeks ago.