Horizon Forbidden West
13 documents in the library are about Horizon Forbidden West, from writers such as Game Developers Conference, GameDiscoverCo and Alinea Analytics, the newest from 2026. Each has a summary and key insights with the page they come from.
Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story as she moves west to a far-future America to brave a majestic, but dangerous frontier where she’ll face awe-inspiring machines and mysterious new threats.
- Released
- Feb 18, 2022
- Developer
- Guerrilla Games
- Publisher
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Links
- Official site, Wikipedia
Game data from IGDB.com
Documents about Horizon Forbidden West
The Xbox and PlayStation Games with 1M+ Sold on Steam Since 2023
This analysis examines the performance of Xbox and PlayStation titles on Steam since 2023, focusing on games that have surpassed one million units sold.
- Sony’s Helldivers 2 has sold 14.5 million copies on Steam, generating nearly $500 million and accounting for 40% of the units sold by Sony and Microsoft titles in the 1 million+ club since 2023.
- PlayStation’s prestige single-player ports are experiencing diminishing returns on Steam, with newer releases like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West selling at significantly lower velocities than earlier ports like the original God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn.
- Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut has achieved 2.7 million Steam sales, demonstrating that a longer gap between console and PC release can help preserve the novelty premium and drive sustained revenue.
PlayStation's Logo-Makers: Process Behind Iterative Branding
The PlayStation Studios Creative Arts team employs a strategic approach to franchise branding, focusing on the transition from singular game titles to expansive, multi-entry series.
- PlayStation Studios utilizes flexible, systematic design frameworks rather than static logos to ensure brand consistency across sequels, spin-offs, and expansions.
- The team develops proprietary typefaces, such as 'Machine Nova' created for the Horizon franchise, to serve as scalable foundations that prevent style-guide degradation.
- Centralized creative oversight is used to balance the need for robust, interconnected visual systems with the flexibility to break rules for specific project requirements.
Building Cognitive Accessibility Into Your Games
Cognitive accessibility in gaming centers on the design and implementation of features that enable players to effectively perceive, process, and act upon information.
- Cognitive accessibility addresses barriers related to information processing, including conditions like ADHD, PTSD, and traumatic brain injuries, as well as situational or temporary needs that affect any player.
- Developers should implement accessibility features early in the design phase rather than as an afterthought, as this allows for more effective integration of modular and customizable gameplay elements.
- Key recommended practices include providing manual save options, offering detailed content warnings, sharing accessibility information prior to launch, and conducting regular testing for light and motion sensitivities.
Market Analysis: Late March 2024
This analysis examines current market trends and upcoming high-profile releases across the PC and console gaming landscape for late March 2024.
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a major market driver, securing the third highest-grossing spot on Steam via pre-orders with over 300,000 units sold before launch.
- The Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection launch was marred by technical issues, resulting in a 19% positive review rating despite an initial 10,000 concurrent user count.
- Helldivers 2 maintains its position as the leading PlayStation sales title in the U.S., while Unicorn Overlord leads third-party paid downloads on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
PlayStation's Top First-Party Games Now Cost >$200 Million to Make
Internal documents from the legal proceedings between the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft have revealed significant financial data regarding Sony Interactive Entertainment’s first-party development costs and the commercial impact of the Call of Duty franchise on the PlayStation platform.
- Sony’s top-tier first-party titles now frequently exceed $200 million in development costs, with 'Horizon Forbidden West' costing $212 million and 'The Last of Us Part II' costing $220 million.
- The 'Call of Duty' franchise is a critical revenue pillar for PlayStation, generating $1.5 billion in worldwide consumer spending on the platform in 2021 alone.
- Over 43 million unique U.S. PlayStation users have played 'Call of Duty' since 2019, accounting for two-thirds of the platform's domestic user base.
Sony’s Confidential PlayStation Secrets Just Spilled Because of a Sharpie
The inadvertent public disclosure of sensitive Sony Interactive Entertainment business data during the Federal Trade Commission’s legal challenge against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has provided unprecedented insight into the financial mechanics of the modern gaming industry.
- Sony's confidential documents, unredacted due to a scanning error, revealed that "The Last of Us: Part II" and "Horizon Forbidden West" each cost over $200 million to develop.
- In 2021, approximately 1 million PlayStation users exclusively played "Call of Duty," while over 6 million spent more than 70% of their gaming time on the franchise.
- "Call of Duty" players spent an average of 116 hours per year on the game in 2021, with those dedicating over 70% of their time to it averaging 296 hours.
The Cinematics of 'Horizon Forbidden West'
Horizon Forbidden West establishes a new benchmark for narrative scale in open-world gaming, delivering 22 hours of cinematic content across 500 scenes and 17,000 individual shots.
- Horizon Forbidden West features 22 hours of cinematic content, comprising approximately 500 scenes, 3,900 choice nodes, and 17,000 individual shots.
- To maintain consistent quality across a massive open-world project, the team shifted from voice-over-first casting to a performance-capture-heavy approach, utilizing techniques from Judith Weston’s acting workshops.
- The production team used script analysis to define clear character objectives and motivations, which provided a framework for blocking and allowed actors to engage more authentically with scene partners.
Building Machines for a Better Future in 'Horizon'
The development of the Horizon franchise relies on a sophisticated, scalable machine asset pipeline that balances creative biomimetic design with rigorous technical efficiency.
- To manage the production of complex machines for 'Horizon Forbidden West' within a four-year window, Guerrilla Games scaled their team by dividing tasks between in-house staff and multiple external outsourcing vendors.
- Guerrilla Games optimized their asset pipeline by keeping subjective tasks—such as concept creation, high-detail modeling, and final texturing—in-house, while delegating repetitive or technical tasks to outsourced partners.
- The team transitioned from hard-surface poly modeling to a ZBrush-based sculpting workflow to achieve a more organic aesthetic, utilizing a standardized library of parts to ensure visual consistency across all machines.
Designing the Settlements in the World of 'Horizon Forbidden West'
The design philosophy behind the settlements in Horizon Forbidden West centers on the integration of environmental storytelling with distinct cultural identities to create a cohesive, immersive world.
- Settlement design in Horizon Forbidden West prioritizes environmental storytelling by grounding architectural aesthetics in the specific histories and survival strategies of each tribe.
- The development team utilized early, iterative collaboration between artists and game designers to ensure settlements function as interactive gameplay spaces rather than static backdrops.
- The Utaru tribe’s aesthetic reflects their symbiotic relationship with nature through the use of organic materials like bamboo and weaving techniques that mimic natural growth.
PS5 Edges Ahead of Xbox Series X and S and F1 22 Holds Pole Position: UK Monthly Charts
The UK video game market experienced a contraction in July 2022, with both hardware and software sales declining compared to previous periods.
- The UK gaming market continued its decline in July 2022, with console sales dropping 16% month-on-month (to 104,000 units) and year-to-date sales down 38%. Video game sales (physical and digital) also fell 32% compared to June 2022 and 17% year-on-year, totaling 1.79 million units.
- Despite the overall market decline, the PlayStation 5 (PS5) saw the smallest sales drop (14%) among major consoles in July, making it the UK's second most popular console of 2022, just behind the Nintendo Switch. PS5 and Xbox Series X sales are still constrained by stock shortages.
- The success of the Horizon: Forbidden West bundle significantly boosted PS5 sales, accounting for 50% of PS5 hardware sales between May and July. This bundle also drove accessory sales, with the DualSense Wireless Controller (White and Black) leading the category.
Knocking on Death's Door: Designing a New Bunker for 'Horizon Forbidden West'
The development of the Death’s Door quest for Horizon Forbidden West serves as a case study in iterative level design, emphasizing the necessity of balancing narrative goals with evolving mechanical systems.
- The development team utilized a structured six-phase process over a four-year production cycle to transition from paper prototyping to a final, high-rated level design.
- Designers prioritized environmental puzzles and vertical traversal over humanoid combat to improve upon the bunker environments established in the series' predecessor.
- The ACE (Astonishing, Challenging, and Engaging) framework served as the primary diagnostic tool for identifying and correcting design shortcomings throughout the development process.
Why Dread Hunger Got so Big; What Steam Tags Are Hot?
This analysis examines the factors driving success for specific PC and console titles while providing a broader overview of current market trends on Steam and major console storefronts.
- The Chinese market is a primary driver for multiplayer viral growth, evidenced by Dread Hunger, where 68% of lifetime reviews are in Chinese and concurrent users surged from 4,200 to over 62,400 following its 1.0 release.
- High-budget titles face significant launch risks; Babylon’s Fall peaked at only 1,100 concurrent users due to technical issues and poor business decisions.
- Steam 'Hype' scores—a metric combining wishlist rankings, followers, and forum traffic—are effective predictors of launch success for titles like Hero’s Hour and ELEX II.