Tuesday, May 9th 2023
Guerrilla Games Celebrates Horizon Forbidden West 8.4 Million Unit Sales, Franchise Total Hits 32.7 Million
Guerrilla Games is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a AAA games developer, and has marked the occasion by releasing a very thorough story on the official PlayStation blog as well as an accompanying video (see below). The introduction states: "From our early days with Killzone to the growth of our studio with Horizon, we're grateful you've been on this journey with us so far. Thank you for an incredible 20 years." The first-party Sony PlayStation development studio has risen from humble origins prior to 2003 - as a producer of third-party Nintendo Game Boy titles under the guise of a smaller outfit called the "Lost Boys." The Dutch team had to step up their game in order to embrace the power offered by current-gen consoles at the time: "The year we formed Guerrilla, 2003, was an interesting time for gaming. The PlayStation 2 had launched three years earlier to critical acclaim. People were losing their minds over the technological feats being achieved with all the power it offered (six whole GFLOPS!)."
After working on the very successful Killzone first-person shooter franchise for over a decade, Guerrilla Games decided to move onto the creation of a new I.P - Horizon - and plenty of successful milestones, both critical and financial, have been reached since "Zero Dawn" debuted on the PlayStation 4 back in the Spring of 2017: "As of April 16, 2023, the Horizon franchise has sold through more than 32.7 million units worldwide, of which Horizon Forbidden West has sold through over 8.4 million units. Millions more around the world have discovered Horizon thanks to PlayStation's subscription services and initiatives, including PlayStation Plus, and Play at Home. All told, it's a milestone we never imagined possible twenty years ago when we first started making games."
Jan-Bart van Beek, the studio's director gives his thoughts about the acclaim: "This reception has been staggering, and we're grateful to the community for the continued love and support for the franchise. We Guerrillas feel lucky to witness that support every day: we share community fanart and the cosplay. I want you all to know we are completely blown away by your enthusiasm."
van Beek also looks forward to the future of the Horizon series, and makes sure to do a bit of DLC-related advertising: "Last of all, I'd like to share that we are so excited that Aloy's adventures will continue. Her latest mission takes her to the ruins of Los Angeles in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, and we can't wait for you to find out where she'll go next. Thank you for being on this incredible journey with us for the past 20 years. Here's to the next 20!" The studio hinted last month that a third Horizon game was already in development, and the team is also working on an unnamed multiplayer-based project.
Sources:
Sony PlayStation Blog, Guerilla YouTube Channel
After working on the very successful Killzone first-person shooter franchise for over a decade, Guerrilla Games decided to move onto the creation of a new I.P - Horizon - and plenty of successful milestones, both critical and financial, have been reached since "Zero Dawn" debuted on the PlayStation 4 back in the Spring of 2017: "As of April 16, 2023, the Horizon franchise has sold through more than 32.7 million units worldwide, of which Horizon Forbidden West has sold through over 8.4 million units. Millions more around the world have discovered Horizon thanks to PlayStation's subscription services and initiatives, including PlayStation Plus, and Play at Home. All told, it's a milestone we never imagined possible twenty years ago when we first started making games."
van Beek also looks forward to the future of the Horizon series, and makes sure to do a bit of DLC-related advertising: "Last of all, I'd like to share that we are so excited that Aloy's adventures will continue. Her latest mission takes her to the ruins of Los Angeles in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, and we can't wait for you to find out where she'll go next. Thank you for being on this incredible journey with us for the past 20 years. Here's to the next 20!" The studio hinted last month that a third Horizon game was already in development, and the team is also working on an unnamed multiplayer-based project.
17 Comments on Guerrilla Games Celebrates Horizon Forbidden West 8.4 Million Unit Sales, Franchise Total Hits 32.7 Million
Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though
Normally I do not adhere to any sort of platform or shop boycotts, but I am more than happy to do my part to end Sony's persistence on exclusivity (I'm hoping they begin to lose antitrust cases left and right), and it greatly helps that I have personal beef with their censorshipI tend to buy consoles towards the end of its lifespan, when it's cheap and widely available. The last one I bought was the Xbox One S, and I like it, just not enough to deal with the 30 fps... still, it tides me over when there's PC downtime or go somewhere for a longer amount of time where I won't have access to my PC.
Once the Series X begins to come down in price, I'll get one of those.
I have many more games to play on the PS5. I actually skipped playing most of them on the PS4 Pro hoping they would get 60 FPS updates on PS5, and that actually happened for the majority of them.
The PC versions might look better, but jeez, most of them launch with so many issues. First party games on PlayStation are really well polished. Though Forbidden West did have that shimmering issue, which was annoying.
There is one more Horizon game coming, probably near the end of this generation.
It abandoned most of what made it great with all the relationships Aloy formed with the dlc. It was almost as they wrote the dlc so you could ignore most of what happened in the main game.
The villain was weak caring more about finding someone to say lines like his previous wife did and put on a play. It was corny and horrible. Not only that but they started tilting the game to making all male characters in the game being morons in the Burning Coast DLC. And regardless of anything the tacked on love interest part at the end seemed out of place for such an independent character trying to save the world to out of nowhere freaking out about what someone else thinks of her. Oh no did I upset her. It was just a bit forced. Maybe it could of worked if they started that from the start but it was a 5 hour DLC that didn't start to push any idea of that until the last 20 percent of the DLC or so. It was just bad story telling and writing and frankly it was out of character for Aloy. Especially considering how she dealt with men that had made moves on her previously in the series.
Now you lose one of the greatest parts of the series after the passing of Lance Reddick. Series has a lot of work to do to turn it around.
They will certainly sell copies regardless of the time they deliver it to X platform, that will generate them more revenue. but they would have made even more releasing it on more platforms initially.