In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Shuhei Yoshida, former president of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony, reflected on his tenure at PlayStation and shared his thoughts on the sales performance of Horizon Forbidden West. Yoshida, who stepped down from his role in 2024, revealed his surprise at the sequel’s sales figures, admitting that they fell short of his expectations.
“The one I was a bit surprised about in terms of the number of units sold was the second Horizon game,” Yoshida remarked. He expressed confidence in the sequel’s potential, given the success of its predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn. “Oftentimes, the second game does better because there are already millions of fans. This wasn’t the case with Forbidden West. The game was bigger and great, but I don’t think the second one did as many units as the first one.”
Released in February 2022, Horizon Forbidden West was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States, the game follows Aloy as she ventures into the Forbidden West to uncover the source of a deadly plague. With its stunning visuals, intricate combat mechanics, and expanded gameplay features such as underwater exploration and new traversal tools, the game was lauded as an evolution of the franchise.
Despite selling over 8.4 million units by April 2023 and receiving several award nominations, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022, Forbidden West did not outperform its predecessor in terms of sales.
The game’s legacy includes the release of the Burning Shores expansion in April 2023 and the launch of the Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition in October 2023, which bundled the main game with the expansion for PlayStation 5. In March 2024, the complete edition was ported to Windows by Nixxes Software. A sequel to the series is currently in development, continuing the story of Aloy in this rich post-apocalyptic world.
