The recent Horizon Forbidden West State of Play finally gave us an extended look at the game’s gameplay, but it didn’t conclude with a release date announcement as many thought it would. PlayStation Studios Head Hermen Hulst confirmed today that the Horizon Forbidden West release date is targeted for Holiday 2021, but it may not hit that window. They are working hard to confirm “as soon as [they] can.”
Hulst mentioned the targeted release window in an interview on the PlayStation Blog. Speaking to delays caused by the pandemic, he referenced difficulties surrounding motion capture and access to talent with narrative-driven games. “So we have, currently, two very big, very narrative-driven games in development: Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War. And for both of those, they’re frankly affected by access to performance capture and talent,” Hulst said. “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.”
PlayStation executives have previously been critical of games that released before they were ready under unhealthy working conditions. CEO Jim Ryan famously threw shade at CD Projekt RED and Cyberpunk 2077 for the disastrous launch that ultimately got the game removed from the PlayStation Store entirely.
“With these things, something’s gotta give. It cannot be the quality of our titles, and it surely won’t be the health or the wellbeing of our amazing team,” Hulst said in today’s interview, making it very clear that should Horizon Forbidden West need more time, it won’t meet its Holiday 2021 target.
Today also came with the news that the next God of War is delayed into 2022 for the same reason. Development on God of War started a little bit later than for Horizon, which makes it impossible to ship this year.
Horizon Forbidden West is expected to release Holiday 2021 for PS4 and PS5.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
