Horizon Forbidden West is still on track to launch this holiday 2021 season, but that release date window isn’t set in stone. PlayStation Worldwide Studios head Herman Hulst discussed in an interview at the PlayStation.Blog that Guerrilla Games’ work on the sequel is progressing along nicely. However, Sony is not certain that the game will be able to make it to the public before holiday 2021 comes to a close.
“So, we have, currently, two very big, very narrative-driven games in development: Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War,” Hulst said. “And for both of those, they’re frankly affected by access to performance capture and talent. For Horizon, we think we are on track to release this holiday season. But that isn’t quite certain yet, and we’re working as hard as we can to confirm that to you as soon as we can.”
Guerrilla and Sony have repeatedly indicated that Horizon Forbidden West was aiming for a 2021 release date. Shortly after its reveal last year, a developer video made mention of a 2021 release window, and marketing materials later in 2020 alluded to the same goal. The uncertainties and challenges that have come along with COVID have evidently complicated reaching that goal.
Guerrilla debuted Horizon Forbidden West gameplay during a focused State of Play presentation last week. While much of the video shown showcased a sequel with new gadgets and mechanics to utilize, the studio confessed that a release date announcement wasn’t quite ready but will come “very soon.”
In other Sony-related delay news, the same Q&A session revealed that Santa Monica Studio’s God of War sequel about Ragnarok will no longer make its 2021 release window. Instead, the team has decided to push the game to 2022 and confirmed that it will also launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 platforms.
