Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said he was very surprised how “Horizon Forbidden West” performed in sales, not as he had anticipated. Yoshida, who officially retired from Sony on January 15, 2025, spoke to Kinda Funny Games and noticed it was a huge game and brilliant to play, but it didn’t sell more copies than its predecessor, “Horizon Zero Dawn”.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Released in 2017, “Horizon Zero Dawn” was one of the most innovative titles by Guerrilla Games and Sony, having sold more than 20 million copies by early 2022 across both PlayStation and PC platforms. This was followed by its highly anticipated sequel in “Horizon Forbidden West,” released this year in February 2022.
Despite excellent critical reception and with the addition of new gameplay elements, its sequel sold only 8.4 million units up to May 2023. Such an impressive number; however, beneath expectations than the original makes it a discussion of what actually influenced its commercial performance.
There are many factors that could contribute to “Horizon Forbidden West’s” sales numbers. Recently, the video game industry has seen a glut of high-budget game development, which means competition between titles has become tighter. Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden commented that as the cost for developing games goes up, companies are getting gun-shy and more often than not, focusing on sequels and known franchises.
Besides, the success of a game is also highly dependent on the time of its release. “Horizon Forbidden West” was released during a period when many events around the world, including changes in consumer behavior, were taking place, which may have affected the gaming habits and purchasing decisions of people. In addition, the rising trend of digital and live-service games has affected how single-player games sell, with players’ attention captured by a wide variety of entertainment options.
According to “Horizon Forbidden West,” the next book of the same name is not a continuation of the story but an addition to the series-the universe now has more material for storytelling. However, it strongly contributed to taking the franchise forward. Then we have the series moving into V.R. with “Horizon: Call of the Mountain” and another future online multiplayer gaming title. Like it or not, the series had a strategic movement into something else, probably an online venue with multiplayer support.
The game industry keeps on changing, and changes are gradually materializing in players’ preferences and in the market dynamic. As much as sales figures are the most direct measures of the success of any game, they don’t tell the whole story about a title’s cultural impact or the player engagement level for a title such as “Horizon Forbidden West”. Moving forward, developers and publishers will need to lean into such new changes, figuring out innovative ways to satisfy the expectations of players in an evolving landscape.
Consumers’ changing habits might also give another explanation for the sales gap. It really gave something one-of-a-kind in offering the post-apocalyptic world, the motivating protagonist Aloy, and the gameplay itself when “Horizon Zero Dawn” launched, but by the time “Horizon Forbidden West” came around, the open-world games had already invaded the market, possibly making it much harder to stand out.
Some part could also be attributed to marketing strategies. While Sony actively marketed the game, it nevertheless faced great competition from a number of important releases that took place around that time, with “Elden Ring” charming people around the world and eventually becoming a kind of cultural phenomenon. There, the timing of release can hugely make a difference, and going against such strong opponents could have definitely taken attention away from “Horizon Forbidden West.”
Another factor that may affect sales is technical developments in gaming technologies and hardware. Going from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, not all players could see the full potential of this game, and this probably influenced their purchasing decision. At the time of its release, limited availability of PlayStation 5 consoles might have further affected the reach of the game.
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Horizon series sure has its lovers who do not leave the place, and such has forced Guerrilla Games to continually update and improve the game with time for players to not grow tired. Fine graphics, intense narrative, and fascinating gameplay mechanics bring numerous players with time as well.
True, Horizon Forbidden West has fallen short regarding sales there could be expected from an industry veteran like Shuhei Yoshida. Still, there are marks in growth concerning the universe and reception by players that may contribute to the title being a success in other significant ways. It indicates a complex journey the game has travelled through the gaming marketplace, wherein commercial success is earned through so many other avenues rather than quality and scope of the game per se.
