A new report says the Days Gone developer is aiming to reveal and release a third-person co-op game in 2027, but Sony has not announced Bend Studio’s next project.
Image: playstationlifestyle.net
Bend Studio’s next project is reportedly targeting 2027
The strongest claim in the latest Bend Studio new game reporting is also the one PlayStation fans will treat most cautiously: MP1st says the Days Gone developer is planning to reveal its next project in 2027, with release also currently aimed for 2027. The outlet attributes that information to people aware of what is happening at Bend who asked to remain anonymous.
Sony has not announced the game. Bend Studio has not named it, dated it, shown it, confirmed platforms, or described its structure publicly. That makes this a PS5 game rumor rather than a confirmed PlayStation Studios release. Still, the report is specific enough to sharpen the question around Bend’s long silence: after Days Gone launched on PS4 in April 2019, the Oregon-based first-party studio has not shipped a new game.
According to MP1st, the unannounced project is a third-person game with co-op elements and is not planned as a live-service title. Push Square, reporting on MP1st’s story, framed the project as potentially arriving sooner than many would expect, citing the claim that it is “much further along in development” than public perception might suggest. That is the tension around the report. Bend’s known recent history includes a canceled project, an unmade Days Gone sequel, and a long gap since its last release, yet the new sourcing points to a reveal and launch window that could put the studio back on the PlayStation calendar within the same year.
The reported game is third-person co-op, but not live service
The most consequential design detail in MP1st’s report is the pairing of third-person play with co-op features. For a studio associated with over-the-shoulder action, traversal, survival pressure, and large-scale enemy movement in Days Gone, that description immediately suggests a different combat rhythm from a solo open-world campaign, but the report does not say whether the co-op is campaign-wide, mission-based, optional, online-only, local, or built around specific modes.
MP1st explicitly reports that the game is not a Games as a Service project. That matters because Bend had been tied to a canceled live-service title, reportedly codenamed Mirror Pond. MP1st previously published material it said came from that canceled project, and Wolf’s Gaming Blog, summarizing the new report, also says the 2027 game is not the canceled Mirror Pond live-service game.
There is still room for major unknowns. Co-op can mean anything from drop-in campaign partners to smaller side activities, AI companion systems with online support, or bespoke two-player encounter design. It can also change the way a third-person action game is built at the foundation: enemy aggression, revive rules, stealth readability, resource scarcity, animation priority, and boss or horde-like set pieces all behave differently when a second player enters the frame. The reporting gives a genre direction, not a design blueprint.
Days Gone 2 is reportedly not the project
MP1st says it can confirm the new game is not a Days Gone sequel. Push Square and Wolf’s Gaming Blog both repeat that point in their coverage, making it the clearest boundary around the rumor: players hoping for Deacon St. John’s return should not read this report as a backdoor Days Gone 2 tease.
The sequel question is unavoidable because Bend’s last major release still defines the studio for a large part of the PlayStation audience. Days Gone arrived in 2019, and previous reporting has said a sequel pitch did not move forward. Push Square describes earlier reports as saying Bend pitched Days Gone 2 to Sony after the first game, but the sequel was turned down. MP1st’s new article similarly says a sequel appears to have been pitched and that PlayStation higher-ups were not interested at the time. Wolf’s Gaming Blog writes that Days Gone 2 did not get the green light despite the first game being profitable.
The confirmed public reality is narrower: there is no announced Days Gone 2, and the new MP1st report says Bend’s current project is not one. For fans, that leaves a split reaction. A new third-person co-op game could let Bend carry forward strengths associated with Days Gone, such as tense movement through hostile spaces and encounters that escalate under pressure. But it would not answer the unresolved appetite for a direct continuation of that world, characters, or biker-survival fantasy.
Bend’s silence looks different after Sony’s live-service pullback
Bend’s long gap since Days Gone has been filled by reports of redirection rather than shipped games. Wolf’s Gaming Blog notes that after Days Gone 2 was not greenlit, Bend worked with Naughty Dog for a period before outlining a new IP in 2022 that was reported to include multiplayer and build on Days Gone’s open-world systems. In January 2025, Bloomberg reported that Bend’s game had been canceled, according to Wolf’s summary, and Sony later officially confirmed cancellations affecting Bend and Bluepoint, as Push Square also reported in its own linked coverage.
That history gives the new report its larger PlayStation Studios context. Sony spent recent years investing in live-service development, then publicly suffered major setbacks in that space. MP1st points to Concord’s failure and the quiet around Fairgame$ while emphasizing that Bend’s reported new title is not GaaS. Push Square likewise highlights the distinction between co-op features and a live-service model.
A third-person co-op game without live-service framing would occupy a more traditional lane for PlayStation than a season-driven, endlessly updated platform. It could still have online play, progression, or post-launch support, but the report does not claim battle passes, seasonal roadmaps, or persistent-world monetization. Until Sony speaks, the safest reading is that the project is being described by sources as cooperative in design rather than as another attempt to build a service game around Bend.
A 2027 reveal and release would make Bend part of a crowded first-party year
If the reported 2027 window holds, Bend could return during a busy stretch for Sony’s internal studios. Push Square notes that Until Dawn 2, God of War Laufey, and potentially Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet have been associated with 2027 in current reporting or listings. MP1st also frames Bend’s project alongside other unannounced or reported PlayStation plans, including Media Molecule’s next game and God of War Laufey.
That creates a practical question for Sony: where does a Bend Studio 2027 reveal fit? A same-year reveal and release can work when a publisher wants a shorter marketing runway, particularly for a known studio with a clean gameplay hook. It can also be risky if the game needs to explain a new IP, a co-op structure, and a post-Days Gone identity all at once.
For action-adventure players, the reveal trailer will need to answer more than whether the game has two characters on screen. Bend’s best-known modern work sold the fantasy of momentum: a bike, an open road, a horde cresting over the terrain, and a player trying to improvise before the trap snapped shut. A co-op game lives or dies on whether that pressure is readable when two players are moving, shooting, reviving, looting, or splitting aggro. That is interpretation, not sourced fact, but it is the right lens for judging the first footage whenever Sony decides to show it.
What is confirmed, what is still rumor, and what to wait for
Confirmed facts are limited. Bend Studio is a Sony first-party developer with a long PlayStation history, including Syphon Filter, Resistance: Retribution, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Days Gone. Days Gone released in 2019, and Bend has not released a new game since. Sony has previously confirmed project cancellations affecting Bend, and the studio has been closely watched because its next shipped game will be its first in years.
The 2027 timing, third-person format, co-op features, non-live-service status, and the claim that the project is not Days Gone 2 all come from MP1st’s reporting, based on anonymous sources. Push Square, Wolf’s Gaming Blog, Game Rant, and ResetEra discussion are circulating or contextualizing that report, but none of those make the project official. Wolf’s Gaming Blog also notes that Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said in August that Bend had moved on to another project after Mirror Pond and that he thought it could be seen in the next year or two, while also acknowledging it was unclear whether that was an informed prediction or based on specific sourcing.
Players should wait for Sony or Bend Studio before treating 2027 as locked. There is no official release date, price, edition structure, PC plan, PS5 Pro feature list, performance target, or PlayStation Plus strategy in the provided sourcing. There is also no confirmation that the game is PS5-only, although the reporting and surrounding coverage discuss it as a PlayStation project from a first-party studio.
The useful takeaway is narrower but still significant: the latest PlayStation Studios rumor says Bend may be closer to re-emerging than its quiet public profile suggests. If accurate, Bend Studio 2027 could be a reveal year and a launch year for a third-person co-op project that moves the Days Gone developer away from both Deacon St. John and the canceled live-service path.