The Horizon duology has become a mainstay for the PlayStation for the past decade, so what are the chances of another Horizon game? Continue on to read our guesses and theories that suggest Horizon 3 to be underway.
Is Another Horizon Game On The Way?
Horizon 3 is Heavily Hinted At, But Not Confirmed
A Horizon sequel has been seemingly confirmed to be in development, as teased by a blog post by Horizon series developers Guerilla Games. The main topic of their announcement was to reveal a change in leadership at the studio. By the end of the blog post, it reads "We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project."
The statement could be a number of things, such as another VR title similar to Horizon Call of the Mountain, or the upcoming Horizon MMO that has been in the works in late 2022. However, the specific wording of "Aloy’s next adventure" heavily suggests that it will be another mainline Horizon game to center around the red-haired protagonist.
Horizon 3 To Release Around 2028 to 2029
The first in the series, Horizon Zero Dawn, was released in 2017, whereas the second game, Horizon Forbidden West, hit the shelves in 2022. We could easily guess that the next Horizon game will come out in another 5 years in 2027 and call it a day. However, one thing to point out is that Forbidden West received a DLC expansion "Burning Shores." Though Zero Dawn DID receive DLC as well in "The Frozen Wilds," it only had a 7-month gap between the base game’s release of March 2023 and the DLC’s release of November 2023. More recently on the other hand, the gap between the release of Forbidden West in February 2022 and its Burning Shores DLC in April 2023 was 14 months!
The development of huge blockbuster AAA video games has steadily climbed, and Horizon developers’ Guerilla Games was no exception. From this trend, we could estimate that the next Horizon game might come out from 2028 to 2029.
However, that timeframe is achieved by looking at it without considering other factors, such as an idea by J. Scott Thurlow from Gamerant. Thurlow suggests for the potential 3rd in the series to forgo creating new assets and regions for the sequel and instead focus on iterating and building upon existing regions in past games. This would cut development costs and duration, as well as keep Horizon’s ongoing narrative confined to previous relationships to be further fleshed out and built upon. With this strategy, Horizon 3 COULD come out earlier, but the change would not be very significant. Other resources will merely have to be reallocated to refining or adding gameplay systems, graphics, music sound effects, and its next narrative steps. At most, it brings forth Horizon 3 a year earlier, giving us a 2027-2028 time range.
In the meantime, to tide us until the eventual Horizon 3, we can relive the adventures of Aloy with the upcoming release of Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition release on PC and PS5.
Sources:
Polygon | Horizon studio says ‘Aloy’s next adventure’ is in the works
Gamerant | Horizon 3: The Case for Staying Within Zero Dawn and Forbidden West's Maps
