Days Gone Might Finally be Coming to Xbox!

It seems that all it takes for Sony Bend Studio to start a fight is one emoji. Over the weekend, the Days Gone developer shared a single monkey face emoji on X (formerly Twitter). This caused a huge stir in the Xbox community, who immediately saw it as a coded hint that the long-awaited Days Gone port might finally be coming to Xbox consoles.

The responses came quickly, were loud, and, let's be honest, were desperate. Ever since Sony surprised everyone by announcing Helldivers 2 for Xbox, Xbox fans have been yelling that they want PlayStation's single-player hits on their system. It's not surprising that people were very excited when Bend Studio finally spoke out about Days Gone. Some people in the community have been calling it an "Xbox-coded game" for a long time.

But the funny part came out of nowhere.

The internet talked about ideas, hoped, and made memes about them, but the next day, the real news came out: there would be no Xbox port. Instead, the Days Gone: Broken Road DLC was being added to GOG, a PC shop. That's it. There isn't a new platform or Deacon St. John on Xbox; there is just a patch for a PC build that already exists.

It was a classic case of bait-and-switch, whether they meant it or not, and it showed how angry fans of both platforms are with each other. Many Xbox users who had complained about Days Gone being only available on PS4 asked for an update in the comments below the original post. They said they loved the game. Oh, how things change.

There have been times before when this has happened. Some PlayStation fans were quick to make fun of the move when Microsoft said earlier this year that four of its own games would be coming to PlayStation. But now the roles are switched. Even a small spark, like a monkey emoji, was enough to get Xbox prospects crazy.

And to be honest, it's kind of nice.

If nothing else, this wave of "port begging" shows how deeply PlayStation Studios games have become a part of gaming culture, no matter what platform you play on. Days Gone isn't Sony's best game, but the fact that so many people want it says a lot. The same thing happened with Death Stranding: it was laughed at first, but then it was praised when it came out on Xbox.

Still, seeing it happen in real time is a little crazy. With just one image, people start making assumptions. It could just be a wishful thought. It could just be another part of the story of the console war. There was no wrong answer; Sony Bend's social team got attention.