E3 2016: Bend Studio returns to console development with first new IP in 17 years

Sony closed its E3 showcase with the new game from its Bend Studio – signalling the return of the developer to console development after more than a decade.

Days Gone is a new third-person zombie-flavoured IP in the vein of The Last of Us, with the setup involving a global disease that transformed humans into ‘Freakers’.

The PS4 exclusive is Bend’s first console game since 2004’s Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, although its subsequent PSP spin-offs of the series, Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow, were ported to PS2 in 2007.

It also worked on portable instalments in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise and Insomniac’s Resistance series for the PSP and Vita handhelds from 2009 to 2012.

In addition, Days Gone is the Sony-owned outlet’s first new IP since the original Syphon Filter was released in 1999, the second title it produced after 1996 debut Bubsy 3D.