Horizon Forbidden West Release Pushed Back to 2022

Last month, it was confirmed that God of War Ragnarok, the next installment in Sony PlayStation's God of War series, was pushed back to 2022. Now, it appears another Sony exclusive IP has also followed suit in Horizon Forbidden West. Bloomberg reports the game has been pushed back to a Q1 2022 release.

Forbidden West was originally expected to launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 later this year, but that no longer appears to be the case. Granted, a 2021 release date was technically never confirmed for the title. Speaking during a PlayStation Blog Q&A earlier this year, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst sounded positive that Forbidden West would still make a holiday 2021 launch. At the time, he said, "We think we are on track to release [Horizon Forbidden West] this holiday season." He added, "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."

Basically, it sounds like this isn't a tremendous loss. Also, if the game isn't ready to go this year, it shouldn't be rushed. The world is still in an ongoing pandemic, and these things need to be taken into consideration. In fact, developer Guerrilla Games shouldn't even be forced to keep a Q1 2022 release game. The game should be released when it is fully polished and ready to go out the door and not before then.

The benefit here is if God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West both launch in 2022, that will at least give Sony PlayStation two strong, exclusive game IPs that will make it to the console next year. Additionally, it looks better for everyone in the long run if the team is given more time to work on the game during such a difficult time in the world, especially when major game development such as this is difficult enough.

Horizon Forbidden West continues the saga of Horizon Forbidden Dawn. Aloy continues her adventure in dangerous future America filled with machines and dangerous, new threats. The game was first announced last year.