Developer Guerrilla Games confirms that Horizon Forbidden West will launch in 2021, so while it won’t be a PlayStation 5 launch title, it will appear within the first year of the console’s lifetime. Horizon Forbidden West was first revealed at the recent PS5 Future of Gaming event, which offered a good look at the game’s next-gen graphics but few solid details about its release.
While the Horizon Forbidden West trailer was one of the biggest reveals in the PS5 showcase, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. Rumors have been swirling for quite a while about a sequel to the PS4 hit Horizon Zero Dawn, with multiple job postings and comments from a voice actor pointing to a followup in the works, but no official confirmation from Guerrilla Games. Not long before the PS5 reveal show, excitement about Horizon Zero Dawn was stirred up again with the announcement of a tie-in comic book taking place about the events of the game.
Now that Horizon Forbidden West has been officially unveiled, it seems that Guerrilla Games isn’t being shy about sharing more details about the upcoming game. In a recent video from Sony, Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge says that the team is aiming for a 2021 release. Along with the release window, de Jonge revealed that Horizon Forbidden West’s setting will span from Utah, where the previous game partially took place, all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and that the map will be bigger than that of Horizon Zero Dawn.
One of the most exciting reveals in the new video is that Horizon Forbidden West will have “virtually no loading screens,” including when players restart from a checkpoint or fast travel from one end of the map to the other. That’s likely enabled by the PlayStation 5’s new SSD, one of the console’s most talked about new features, which Sony says will help significantly cut down on load times for open-world games. On top of cutting out load times, the new feature could help games dynamically change their environments, as seen in the recent Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart trailer, which may play into the roving storms de Jonge said will appear in Horizon Forbidden West.
Some players may have been hoping for Horizon Forbidden West at launch, but a 2021 release window still means the game is just around the corner. The PS5's actual launch lineup may be a bit light, but plenty of big games are planned for next year.
Horizon Forbidden West is expected to launch in 2021 on PlayStation 5.
Source: PlayStation/YouTube