Call me naive, but I was hopeful for Bloodborne news at Sony’s State of Play on Wednesday. There were a bunch of signs pointing to it, or at least, it felt that way among the sizable population of Bloodborne fans whose proficiency at conspiratorial dot-connecting has reached disturbing levels.
In December Sony released a new PlayStation ad featuring a callback to Bloodborne, along with the text “it’s about persistence”. This implied to me and other weirdos that our persistent begging for a Bloodborne PC port—or at the very least, a 60fps patch for the game running on PS5—might soon be gratified. Presumably an actual human or group of humans made that ad, and understood what it might suggest to Bloodborne fans.
Then, earlier this month, came news that Sony had bullied the creator of a Bloodborne 60fps mod for PS5 with a DMCA takedown notification. Granted, that’s unpromising material for any rumour mill, but this is how desperate we’ve become. The reasoning went: perhaps Sony’s sudden focus on this mod—which has existed since 2021—pointed to an imminent official solution that might involve the exchange of money between Sony and its customers, who have wasted no opportunity to make it clear that a Bloodborne PC port and/or remaster is something they would pay for. Not only that, but probably in numbers that would easily eclipse those enjoyed by, say, a remaster of the water-treading open world adventure Horizon Zero Dawn.
I’m not suggesting any of this is rational, by the way. It was only last month that former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida provided the most clearcut reason yet for Sony’s inaction on Bloodborne, even if his reason was also just speculation. He put forward the theory that creator Hidetaka Miyazaki is interested in a remaster or sequel, but only if he can do it himself. The problem being that he’s too busy with a bunch of other things.
Still, at this point it’s rubbing salt in the wound whenever Sony dares remind us that it published Bloodborne (it also owns the IP). It’s also rubbing salt in the wound whenever the company announces basically any other game, but triply so—quadruply so—when it announces a first-party remaster that is not Bloodborne.
Look at the fully-fledged remasters (as distinct from title updates that improve performance) already received during the PS5 generation:
So imagine the cosmic scale of salty woundedness when Sony announces Days Gone Remastered today, which will release day one on PC. As far as I know, not a single soul on this dear dying planet has asked for a Days Gone remaster.
I’m not bagging Days Gone. It has its fans, I assume, but Sony itself isn’t among its most ardent admirers since it turned down a sequel. I played it. I have the trophies to show for it on my PS4, at least, though I have no recollection of doing so. It’s an open world game about a guy on a motorbike. It has zombies and some neat horde tech. From memory it had that faintly annoying Sony prestige vibe to it. You know what I mean: The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic zombie game, but seriously. God of War is a game about an angry violent demigod, but seriously. Days Gone is also a post-apocalyptic zombie game, and also seriously.
It’s not Bloodborne, that’s for sure. Sony’s recent habit of remastering games that don’t really need remastering is a pragmatic business move during a tumultuous time for the blockbuster end of the games industry. Even if I think remastering Horizon Zero Dawn is ridiculous as a creative decision, I wouldn’t argue against the business logic.
The problem is that these remaster projects for niche and/or middling games are always going to be overshadowed by The Bloodborne Problem. Every time Sony announces a remaster and PC release for a first-party PlayStation game, it fails to be Bloodborne. And every time it fails to be Bloodborne, it frustrates the people who simply want to play a modern classic without frame pacing issues that make it look like a stop motion film in fast-forward.
Sony: speak to us about Bloodborne. Don’t be cryptic about it, either. Don’t cheekily allude to “persistence”. Just lay it all out. We’re adults here, albeit desperate ones. What initially felt like a smart tease has lately come to feel like a joke. How about this: you talk to us about Bloodborne, and I’ll play your lil’ Days Gone again.
