With the likelihood of a Days Gone 2 dwindling, we explore what it would look like if the sequel had a Co-op feature.

Speaking with David Jaffe in an enlightening and lengthy conversation on Jaffe's live stream yesterday, Ex Sony Bend game director Jeff Ross discussed, among many other topics, the idea of wanting to implement a shared universe and cooperative play for the sequel.

Whilst chatting about the article surrounding Bloomberg’s recent report about an unsuccessful Days Gone 2 pitch, Ross highlighted that he had plans for a co-op feature to be included in the next title.

"We wanted co-op from the beginning [in Days Gone 1], but obviously, you have to make concessions for what you’re not going to be able to do,” he explained.

Turning the conversations into Days Gone 2 and if he wanted to implement a co-op feature he replied “It’s one of the things that we had in our pitch, yeah. It was the idea of a shared universe with co-op play.”

What could a Days Gone 2 co-op game look like?

For anyone that has played Days Gone, they'll be aware of how massive its world is, ripe for social interaction.

Ross mentioned in the live stream that he had wanted to build a "themed multiplayer version of this (Days Gone) universe" and discussed how he thought it would be "fun to be in that world cooperatively and see what horde battles could be like.”

Of course, this had me thinking on what that picture would look like.

I've spent a lot of time travelling around on Deacon's trusty bike in Days Gone and even though I've throughly enjoyed the experience solo, the idea of adventuring it with a friend would have been awesome.

One of the many ways Bend Studio could have implemented a co-op feature could have been in the many camps scattered across the game's six regions by allowing players to "squad up" at these areas to purchase weapons, equipment and as Ross said "building up a clubhouse or a crew."

One of the other ways a social "co-op" system could have worked is by taking on the roads together in player's own personalized motorcycles as part of a team to scout out Freaker Nests to burn or finding unique ways to rescue allies from Ripper camps.

I think one of the most fun and interesting areas of a co-op play would have been getting together with teammates to take out major hordes of Freakers and finding the best tactics for taking them down by either herding them towards some home-made explosives or by positioning teammates in certain areas for the best coverage when going in for the kill.

The Days Gone world is literally exploding with so many creative ideas that would be perfect for a shared universe but now, it seems like it has all gone to waste at the drop of a hat by Sony.

Of course, we don't know the entire story on if or why Sony has done this at this stage as they haven't stepped forward to confirm or deny but it certainly seems like any idea of a Days Gone 2, and its co-op features, has been left to rot in its post-apocalyptic world.