‘Days Gone’ Developer Calls Astro Bot a ‘Small Game’
Yet again, the Creative Director for ‘Days Gone’ has taken to Twitter/X in a bizarre tantrum. This came about when BEND Studio sent out a Tweet congratulating Team Asobi in the release of their latest game ‘Astro Bot’. The Tweet also showed off Deacon, the main character of Days Gone, in the Astro Bot art style. A nice message, right? Well, in response, Michael Garvin, ex-creative director for Days Gone, said the following:
“Kinda sad that Deek has been reduced to promoting other games.. well done Bend Studio! Way to protect your legacy!”
If you weren’t aware, Garvin has been obsessed with Days Gone not receiving a sequel for the past five or so years. While enjoyable, the biker zombie title was quite generic and isn’t all too memorable- despite Garvin implying it to be an undisputed work of art. On top of this, the main character of Days Gone is far from the only cameo appearance in Astro Bot. Characters from much better and healthier franchises like God of War, Ratchet and Clank and Uncharted all make appearances in the promotional material of the game.
As you may expect, Garvin received a lot of backlash for his tweet- with many arguing that the game is a celebration of PlayStation history and it should be a positive thing to see Days Gone make an appearance. Unfortunately, Garvin doesn’t see it that way. In what may be his most ridiculous take yet, he responded the following when accused of being bitter over the lack of any sequel to Day’s Gone:
“Haha I see my character reduced to a cartoon schill promoting some small game and I’m being harsh? Sit down, my brotha, adults are talking”
As a reminder, Astro Bot (while being a brand new franchise) is currently sitting at a 95 rating on Opencritic- level with industry giants like Elden Ring and Persona 5. Days Gone is at a fair 72 on the same site. Days Gone isn’t a bad game by most metrics but, compared to Astro Bot, there’s not much competition. What makes this worse is that there shouldn’t be a need to argue: both IPs are owned by PlayStation and, as mentioned before, Deacon’s inclusion is Team Asobi honoring Day’s Gone as a volume in PlayStation history.
Astro Bot is phenomenal game that has been painstakingly created by a passionate team over the last four years. Labelling it a ‘small game’ with marketing ‘shill’ shows a level of disrespect and delusion that proves just how bitter Garvin truly is. Sadly, this has turned some attention from a celebration of PlayStation’s history to looking at a bitter note for an ex-creative designer who, at this point, will likely never work under the company again.
