Guerrilla Games Celebrates Horizon Forbidden West 8.4 Million Unit Sales, Franchise Total Hits 32.7 Million

[T0@st]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[kapone32]

Just tell me when it is coming to pc

 

[Solaris17]

Would have made more money if it wasn’t an exclusive

 

[kapone32]

Would have made more money if it wasn’t an exclusive

I don't like it but it helps to sell PS5s.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I don't like it but it helps to sell PS5s.

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though

 

[kapone32]

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though

Well that is you but there are plenty of people that bought a Game for Console. Grand Turismo comes to mind but Crash, were all exclusive as well and plenty of Consoles get sold every time a new FIFA Game comes out (not anymore for now). We also need to remember that Halo was an Xbox exclusive as well. I agree that GTA5 changed the World but we are still much better with getting exclusives on PC. I for one am looking forward to Armored Core 6 on my PC.

 

[Vayra86]

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though

That is how it works though, I recognize this with myself - those games Sony pushes as system sellers are almost always infused with something special. It kinda gives you that look on what you'll likely get more of in that console gen. Even if you're not directly buying the game with the console.

 

[NeuralNexus]

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though

Kind of silly considering that an Xbox is just a PC on a singular configuration. I can play all Xbox Games on my PC. I'll rather have a PS5 that gives me access to all their exclusives while still being able to play Xbox games on my PC.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Kind of silly considering that an Xbox is just a PC on a singular configuration. I can play all Xbox Games on my PC. I'll rather have a PS5 that gives me access to all their exclusives while still being able to play Xbox games on my PC.

For the cost, Game Pass Ultimate simply rocks, and I can take the Xbox around without much difficulty - my hefty (and relatively fragile) PC built on a showcase frame, not so much.

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 censorship

That is how it works though, I recognize this with myself - those games Sony pushes as system sellers are almost always infused with something special. It kinda gives you that look on what you'll likely get more of in that console gen. Even if you're not directly buying the game with the console.

I 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.

 

[b1k3rdude]

Just tell me when it is coming to pc

Same, its like all I see is blah blah, images and then, we when is it coming to PC...

 

[kapone32]

Same, its like all I see is blah blah, images and then, we when is it coming to PC...

Yep just to make us say please.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I made the mistake of not expecting HZD to come to GOG and bought when it showed up at Epic. I'll wait until GOG this time, what's another 6 months when it's been 2 years already?

 

[dlgh7]

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

Buying FW day one when it's on Steam or EGS though

I was like that, until motherboards started costing what a PS5 does. Or the fact that $500-$600 gpu's are still targeting 1080P - 1440P gaming and not 4k. Now I do a majority of my gaming on consoles.

 

[THU31]

I'll never buy a console for a single game, rather buy an Xbox which I can play tons of games, or better yet just keep my high end gaming PC

I didn't buy it just for this game, but I did buy it because of it. And I bought the PS4 Pro because of the first Horizon. Absolutely the best Sony franchise for me, and the best new single player IP in a long time, probably since Red Dead Redemption.

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.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Well, eagerly awaiting them on PC. This is literally the only franchise I care about on PlayStation, and serving as the pilot title for the PS+PC initiative, they better not hold out on me.

 

[dlgh7]

I didn't buy it just for this game, but I did buy it because of it. And I bought the PS4 Pro because of the first Horizon. Absolutely the best Sony franchise for me, and the best new single player IP in a long time, probably since Red Dead Redemption.

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.

Hoping there is some fresh members on the writing team for the third game. The story started going off the rails on the tail end of Forbidden West. They might as well give Aloy nothing but sci-fi weapons in the last game and ditch the hand to hand combat and the Bows etc. It just went off the rails sci-fi with a weapon that basically was like shooting heat seeking ammo and required zero skill to play the game. It was like you enabled god mode via a console command.

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.

 

[Space Lynx]

Would have made more money if it wasn’t an exclusive

not sure what you mean here, when they bring it to PC it will make them even more money. its just delayed bringing it to PC. Sony already announced that PC ports are making them an insane amount of money and more are coming.

 

[Solaris17]

not sure what you mean here, when they bring it to PC it will make them even more money

Obviously. the statement as others were able to perceive is that like movie sales game sales are generally at there strongest when a title is new, this is even obvious in other parts of the industry with GPUs, processors and even press announcements as forums like E3 jockeying for release dates early and close to one another..

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.