Sony released plenty of big-budget AAA games during the PS4's lifetime. Many first-party titles released during this time including a new God of War game, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and even two games based on Marvel's Spider-Man franchise. These PlayStation sequels and new IPs have seen plenty of commercial and critical success, with Sony seemingly doubling down on this initiative. However, one neglected property from the publisher that hasn't seen much spotlight is Insomniac Games' Resistance. A recent livestream with the former director of Bend Studio, another PlayStation owned developer, reveals that there was a pitch for a possible reboot of the franchise.
Bend Studio is most well known nowadays for the open-world zombie survival game Days Gone. It was released to middling reviews, especially in comparison to other games released by Sony's first-party studios. The former director of the game, Jeff Ross, has been open regarding what a sequel for Days Gone could have looked like, along with other failed projects he was a part of.
In a recent livestream with David Jaffe, Ross comments that one of the pitches Sony rejected was for a reboot of the Resistance franchise. He noted that the FPS franchise had a bunch of aspects that would neatly lend itself to having open-world gameplay, where there were open-world loops that he had figured out how to create. However, Sony wasn't interested in that idea, with Ross commenting he didn't know how far the idea made it past the intial pitching phase.
Ross then revealed this idea was pitched after Sony rejected a Days Gone sequel. He notes the sequel idea was "dead on arrival" due to how the first game received a critical thrashing and was considered a commercial failure. Ross also noted that further ideas for the Days Gone sequel weren't impressing his manager and boss. Ross did note that Bend Studio was approached about a Syphon Filter reboot, but he rejected it due to lack of ideas and interest in the property.
The final comments from Ross noted that an open-world Resistance game would have been "rad," and that Sony was interested in other ideas that didn't involve Days Gone. He left Bend Studio back in 2020, along with other talent from the development team. Bend Studio however is currently working on a brand-new open-world IP that will utilize the technology and systems from its work on Days Gone. While a Resistance reboot isn't in the cards right now, the fans who did love Days Gone might be interested in Bend Studio's upcoming project.