MiguelItUp
Member
But they keep forcing the IP on us.
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Shuhei Yoshida says Horizon Forbidden West didn't sell as well as he expected
Omnipunctual Godot
Gold Member
I miss Killzone. Too bad Guerilla/Sony seem to vehemently hate the IP now.But they keep forcing the IP on us.
Palabragrís
Member
Not surprising when you consider they decided, for some reason, to transform the protagonist from a relatable, brave character in HZD into an arrogant prick in HFW. Bad writting.
MiguelItUp
Member
It'd be great to see! I know a lot of people agree as well. It's just wild how stuck they are on Horizon. I know some people like it, but it really does feel like the majority are pretty indifferent.
TropicanaTwista
Member
I was little surprised to but the game is worse. I say this as someone who thinks HZD is as good as any game that came out in the PS4 gen, forbidden West is just flat out worse. Still enjoyed my time with the game but couldn't bring myself to finish it, unlike Zero dawn where after I platinumed it, I still wanted to play more. Plus I think Sony put in on their sub service which showed it hurt sales a good bit iirc.
One complaint I don't understand about this franchise though is that Sony is milking it. Like the first ever game for this IP released in 2017. You then got a sequel, a tech demo-ish VR game and a Lego game. We're talking about 4 games in 8 years, 2 of which are small titles. Idk, just a weird complaint. There are still annual sport games and cod. Assassin creed use to be an annual game once upon a time as well. Kind of feel like more IPs should strive to have this many releases and not take 5 years for a single sequel or new game
One complaint I don't understand about this franchise though is that Sony is milking it. Like the first ever game for this IP released in 2017. You then got a sequel, a tech demo-ish VR game and a Lego game. We're talking about 4 games in 8 years, 2 of which are small titles. Idk, just a weird complaint. There are still annual sport games and cod. Assassin creed use to be an annual game once upon a time as well. Kind of feel like more IPs should strive to have this many releases and not take 5 years for a single sequel or new game
Hypereides
Member
Good. He deserves the criticism he gets regardless of how some zealots fawn over him like he's Sony's golden boy and the greatest PS CEO.
mayham2199
Member
Because the first one sold 20+ million copies and the second has sold 8 million+. Even with being added to PS+ after 1 year.But they keep forcing the IP on us.
Pasta la Vista
Member
This was me for the first game, that and I loved the design of the robo dinos and was hoping it would be something more than it ended up being. Had to force myself to finish the game.
Lots of wasted potential which is the story of Guerrilla, im sorry they have always been mid, the Killzone games were all boring with the exception of the one on Vita. Always loved the way their games looked but the actual gameplay of their games leave a lot to be desired.
FoxMcChief
Gold Member
Hypereides
Member
I don't understand why Guerrilla didn't get split into two teams; One continuing/maintaining the Killzone series whilst the other worked on new IPs such as Horizon in offset dev cycles. Would've been a good way to have variety in releases and maintain excitement/freshness in their selection.
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Hero of Spielberg
Member
Being quite candid on the way out old Yoshida …
sloppyjoe_gamer
Gold Member
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
Didn't they stop releasing games on PS Plus 1 year after release because this was a test subject that clearly failed?
They even had some graphics that showed the game was selling well (better than the first i think) and then PS Plus release cut its legs completely.
Might be wrong though.
They even had some graphics that showed the game was selling well (better than the first i think) and then PS Plus release cut its legs completely.
Might be wrong though.
Shadowstar39
Member
I liked the first game, but I have zero trust in Sony in this gen. They lost my faith in them after killing all their Japanese devs (outside of asobi) and going woke.
Thing is that game reminded me of old era pre-modern audiences PlayStation).
Tlou2 was the final straw for me.
I haven't bought a first party Sony game new since and wont until i know the cult madness is done. (well team asobi, the one game from first party I actually bought new from them, Astrobot, only because of who made it).
The more they appease resetera the less I like their first party.
Shuhei leaving just makes this worse.
I miss ps1- ps3 era Sony where exclusives, horror, rpgs, and fun experimental titles were all the time.
I miss ps1 - psp era jrpgs.
I miss the edge from the brand, the old advertising, from Japanese crazy to Kevin butler.
I miss them appealing to gamers and not censoring things like they did with DMC5.
I got the ps5 mainly to play my ps4 library and multiplats.
So yeah, I can totally see this. I would of bought horizon 2 if it was Sony from years past, I wouldn't of even questioned it, as I knew it would be quality and appeal to me, a male gamer.
I would of bought God of war Ragnarök without question instead i never bought it or forbidden west. Their loss. I may get it and horizon when its used on sale for $20.
Sucks that Shuhei is gone
Thing is that game reminded me of old era pre-modern audiences PlayStation).
Tlou2 was the final straw for me.
I haven't bought a first party Sony game new since and wont until i know the cult madness is done. (well team asobi, the one game from first party I actually bought new from them, Astrobot, only because of who made it).
The more they appease resetera the less I like their first party.
Shuhei leaving just makes this worse.
I miss ps1- ps3 era Sony where exclusives, horror, rpgs, and fun experimental titles were all the time.
I miss ps1 - psp era jrpgs.
I miss the edge from the brand, the old advertising, from Japanese crazy to Kevin butler.
I miss them appealing to gamers and not censoring things like they did with DMC5.
I got the ps5 mainly to play my ps4 library and multiplats.
So yeah, I can totally see this. I would of bought horizon 2 if it was Sony from years past, I wouldn't of even questioned it, as I knew it would be quality and appeal to me, a male gamer.
I would of bought God of war Ragnarök without question instead i never bought it or forbidden west. Their loss. I may get it and horizon when its used on sale for $20.
Sucks that Shuhei is gone
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kazuyamishima
Member
Im pretty sure they already recovered all costs and money some pocket change.
But HUGE mistake put it in Ps Plus Premium , that thing cut the game legs.
It’s not as good as the first one tho.
But HUGE mistake put it in Ps Plus Premium , that thing cut the game legs.
It’s not as good as the first one tho.
Shadowstar39
Member
What ps plus release? Or do you mean the over priced game pass style tiers. When people say psplus I think of the default level ps+ that was a thing since 2010 or so. And I never got Horizon 2 from that.
Do you really think that many people have that expensive premium tier? Only rich people or mega fans.
If it was in base ps+ that you get the 2 games for month and online play then sure, but I know it wasn't that as Its not in my library.
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Mercenary09
Member
I mean a big reason is because they put it on PS Plus Extra only a year after release which killed the legs. It was selling pretty well until then. Sony learned their lesson from that and that is why it took Ragnarok a much longer time to appear on the service.
Zacfoldor
Member
You know what, the first game was boring, the second game I expected to improve upon it and make it better.
It was more of the same only worse this time, and I hated it.
0/10 and fuck be upon the idea in my head to buy it at launch.
I never want to ever play another Aloy game ever again. Sorry. I'm a huge Sony fan tbh.
Spider-Man too. Though, SM has never been as boring as Aloy. I'm unfortunately over it.
It was more of the same only worse this time, and I hated it.
0/10 and fuck be upon the idea in my head to buy it at launch.
I never want to ever play another Aloy game ever again. Sorry. I'm a huge Sony fan tbh.
Spider-Man too. Though, SM has never been as boring as Aloy. I'm unfortunately over it.
Lionel Richie
Member
Coming out a week before Elden Ring was a choice for sure.
mayham2199
Member
That's the whole point. They gave the game away to the people most likely to buy it. The people with plenty of expendable income and mega fans.
MiguelItUp
Member
But the IP is losing more and more momentum with each title. I know the Lego game can't speak to everyone, but it's wild to make a Lego game with that IP and it didn't do well at all.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
And this is the trap that many devs fall into
Sometimes, the sequel should not be immediate. Sometimes the popularity of the first one is a one time event, a curiosity, a good timing for the era of its release.
Take Mario & Rabbids, Pillars of Eternity, FEAR 2, Ass creed, Subnautica below zero, etc etc.
The sequels were not "bad" per say, but peoples had their dose of it just from a few years prior. Sometimes not even had time to play or finish the original one. The sparkle and excitement of a new franchise can be gone.
In Horizon zero dawn's case, I forced myself to the finish line and it was a chore. I was not even having fun in the end, I was hoping by speedrunning the main quest that I would see the credits and then I can put this into my "finished" folder and uninstall it and move to something else. Not a tiny bit interested for the sequel.
mayham2199
Member
Sure it lost momentum but you don't just throw away an 8+ million selling IP. Do you know how many game companies would love for their game to sell 8 million copies on just one system?
The Lego game was trash and there's no denying that. Sony tried something new and it failed. Sony always tries experiments like this and sometimes it just doesn't work out.
fart town usa
Member
Horizon is a mediocre franchise. Impressive tech for sure but the gameplay is weak as can be.
Bumblebeetuna
Member
Yeah but that was long after release and on the expensive PS+ tier. I would assume a majority or even vast majority of people who wanted to play the game would have already bought it. Especially those, as you put it, with “plenty of expendable income” and “mega fans”. Those people aren’t waiting that long.
The simple answers are the game isn’t very good and wasn’t as heavily bundled/discounted as the first game.
Mister Wolf
Member
Guerilla Games entire history in a nutshell.
MiguelItUp
Member
Of course you don't. But it'd be awesome to see them give it a break a bit, lol.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
If I recall correctly Sony sabotaged HFW’s sales by throwing it into PS Plus too early as a way to compete with GamePass back when everyone thought gaming subs were the new wave. It was a stupid Jim Ryan/Hermen Hulst move that ended up costing them.
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ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
So much for cross-gen and PC porting, eh, Shuhei? Maybe you should've pushed the game to be a next gen only quantum leap sequel.
Also this. Can't believe Sony was so fucking dumb to have to test whether or not an early PS+ release was going to cut into sales.We knew that already from the Insom leaks. Sony put Horizon FW on PS+ after one year and lost $85m in projected revenue as a result of that.
Horizon Forbidden West Sales “Flatlined” After Joining PS Plus, Leading to Projected $85 Million Loss in Retail Revenue
If the game hadn't joined PS Plus in its second year, Sony was projecting $124 in retail revenue, according to leaked internal documents.gamingbolt.com
nial
Gold Member
GAF gets excited way too easily.
www.playstationlifestyle.net
Basically, Sony "sacrificed" HFW's sales in order to get data on how PS Plus can affect the sales of first-party titles.
The most hilarious thing here is people acting as if the game only sold 3M units or something.
Adding First-Party Games to PS Plus Negatively Impacts Sales, Sony Data Confirms - PlayStation LifeStyle
The recent Insomniac Games hack has revealed that sales of Sony's first-party exclusives are negatively impacted by PS Plus.
www.playstationlifestyle.net
The most hilarious thing here is people acting as if the game only sold 3M units or something.
Japan Studio (without the 's', enough of that mistake) was reorganized in favor of the creation of a new, different Japanese studio, Team Asobi.
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Saber
Member
Couldn't this be the same strategy some movie companies adopt when they know their films will not get much of money?
Shaki12345
Member
If you strip this game of side content, you barely get 10 hours of gameplay.
My God these games are so boring. They are hot girls without personality.
My God these games are so boring. They are hot girls without personality.
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AmuroChan
Member
I think they knew, but they had to do it at least once just to show with concrete evidence that the GP model of day 1 release with AAA game is simply not viable financially for them. And this was putting the game on PS+ a year after release. Imagine if they had done day and date release and how much more money they would've lost.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
Maybe but the tactic ended up failing horribly for them. From what I remember they ended up losing like $85 million worth of revenue by doing that. Even if they felt that HFW wasn’t selling as well, the right move wasn’t to throw it into PS Plus. That was a Phil Spencer logic type of move that ended up backfiring hard on them.
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nial
Gold Member
The fuck, lol? It's usually said that film companies SELL the distribution rights of a film without much faith put into it to streaming platforms BEFORE release.
Literally not the same case at all.
It wasn't to compete with Game Pass, none of the leaked documents stated such thing and Xbox was already pretty dead by early 2023.
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ShaiKhulud1989
Gold Member
There's barely anything sensational in Shu's words because it was revealed officially and game still did good considering that PS5 version was the main one. That's why Yoshp said things so freely, it's barely under any NDA.
People are love to attach narrative to facts, but love it or hate it, HFW still did mighty fine and almost ceartinly better than any MS exclusive this gen.
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mayham2199
Member
They probably will but they still need to finish the story at the very least. If there was an IP that you enjoyed would you want the devs to leave you hanging on the plot for over a decade? I get that people on this site hate the game but there are still at least 10+ million people out there who liked it and want to see the story finished. It has great reviews on metacritic and on Steam it's not hated worldwide. They have one more game that will wrap up the story and like you at that point I will want them to move on to something new.
Saber
Member
And hows that works for Disney for instance? Isn't there examples from them when they know their film will bomb they release it on their own streaming services?
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
Then why the hell did they do it? Just testing the waters with launching a AAA game early into PS Plus? I don’t have a business degree and even I could have told them it was an idiotic move that would cost them.
nial
Gold Member
Which examples are we talking about? If they didn't have a teathrical release, they don't count, btw.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
There's no game called Horizon Forbidden West. It was just a Horizon Zero Dawn DLC called Forbidden West.
Expensive DLC isn't a thing for a reason. The industry tried it. It doesn't work.
Horizon III better take a big step forward.
Expensive DLC isn't a thing for a reason. The industry tried it. It doesn't work.
Horizon III better take a big step forward.
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