Shuhei Yoshida says Horizon Forbidden West didn't sell as well as he expected

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
In terms of sheer sales, PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida reveals that he thought the sequel could have performed better.

Speaking in his first interview after departing from PlayStation in 2024, the former president of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony tells Kinda Funny Games that one game's sales figures, in particular, left him surprised

"The one I was a bit surprised [abou] in terms of the number of units [sold] was the second Horizon game."
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According to Yoshida, he expected the sequel to sell better as it came after an already well-established IP.

"Oftentimes, the second game does better because there are already millions of fans. This wasn't the case with Forbidden West, although Yoshida initially thought it might end up being so. I love Horizon and the game did well, and I was hoping that the sequel would do even better in terms of sales. The game was bigger and great, but I don't think the second one did as many units as the first one."
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Source
 
It's a fuckin boring franchise that Herman Hulst is, unfortunately, obsessed with. It's tough to admit your kid's just not that exceptional, I suppose I can sympathize.
 
poodaddy said:
It's a fuckin boring franchise that Herman Hulst is, unfortunately, obsessed with. It's tough to admit your kid's just not that exceptional, I suppose I can sympathize.
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The world of Horizon has potential. The story of Aloy is quite bad though, especially in HFW. But you can't tell me fighting Robotic dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic world isn't a cool setting. I don't think the IP is dead like most people seem to think
 
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It has a lot of issues. One, it came out 5 years after the first. Didnt do anything new and just felt like a quick and dirty sequel instead of a marquee event. It worked for GOW because people wanted to see how Ragnorak would unfold but there was no such hype for Aloy's next adventure.

Two, combat balance was ruined by needless tinkering in order to give it more 'depth'. But i dont think it affected initial sales too much other than word of mouth.

three, a lot of people who bought the game probably didnt like it. I love the combat but it was no naughty dog of SSM game. I think Ghost of Tsushima 2 will suffer the same fate.

Lastly, fat aloy. You cant have your main character become a meme at the reveal and not pay the price. They did change her character model but it was too late. The damage was done. Game still sold well, but a sizeable number of men nowadays dont put up with this shit.
 
Played about an hour or it, and apart from the visuals I was completely bored. The first game was at least fresh in its art style and world, but more of the same just wasn't enough when the underlying game mechanics are just Ubisoft slop
 
coachmcguirk91 said:
The world of Horizon has potential. The story of Aloy is quite bad though, especially in HFW. But you can't tell me fighting Robotic dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic world isn't a cool setting. I don't think the IP is dead like most people seem to think
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It was cool as a 1 off 30-50 hour long game like the first one. It didn't need a 30-50 hour long sequel and huge push from Sony.
 
I really liked Zero Dawn.

Forbidden west is a mixed bag.
It wasn't a horrible experience but it wasn't what I call an enjoyable one either.
 
Not surprising, the first one had great visual but the plot was downright average. Didn't help that the main character was bland.

I didn't even bother with the sequel.
 
DryvBy said:
It's super boring. I haven't been able to finish the second one after 3 tries. Beautiful game that's boring as crap.
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Not really boring, but it feels too much like a normal sequel, without any "real highlights" or a better story.
I played it right after i've finished Zero Dawn and Forbidden West looks great and it has a few improvements and new gadgets, but it was at the time "too much of the same" for me.
 
Fake said:
To add more to the juice. Yoshida said Horizon Zero Dawn sold more than Horizon Forbidden West.

Horizon Forbidden West was sold on both PS4 and PS5, while Zero Dawn on PS4.



Horizon Zero Dawn release next to BOTW.
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I think that's a point for sure, but I also think that there's more crossover between the target audiences of ER and HFW than HFW and BOTW.
 
poodaddy said:
It's a fuckin boring franchise that Herman Hulst is, unfortunately, obsessed with. It's tough to admit your kid's just not that exceptional, I suppose I can sympathize.
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Yeah... the favouritism/bias/whatever is insane.

On a serious note, give us fucking Killzone.
 
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The main character is unlikable and the game is bloated. It would have made a better linear action game because the world is boring to explore. The game is carried by graphics.
 
proandrad said:
The main character is unlikable and the game is bloated. It would have made a better linear action game because the world is boring to explore. The game is carried by graphics.
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I really liked Aloy in Zero Dawn, but they clearly had no place else to take her after that.
 
Yoshida should just take a piss on his colleagues already for foolishly shutting down Japan Studios in favor of western studios that are now facing diminishing sales.
 
Fake said:
But, but, some Sony fanboys told me Horizon is a huge franchise and thats why LEGO Horizon exist.

Yoshida must be lying. He must be on team green now.
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"As of April 16, 2023, the Horizon franchise has sold through more than 32.7 million units worldwide, of which Horizon Forbidden West has sold through over 8.4 million units." https://blog.playstation.com/2023/0...-story-of-a-playstation-studio/?sf266576029=1

Call me a Hermen d*** sucking Fanboy, but it's still an impressive number.
Sure, let's say that Horizon Call of the Mountain sold 1 million at the time, are the rest of the 32,7 million units Zero Dawn.
But still impressive numbers for Forbidden West.
Especially because it was in the PS Plus library since february 2023 till september 2024.
 
EverydayBeast said:
No I'm not Herman but cmon with these threads bashing Sonys greatest exclusives all of a sudden (Spider-Man 2 yesterday)—Sony killed Killzone for this Horizon franchise and that was a BIG risk that I think paid off.
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Horizon is flat out boring. It doesn't even have a high competition rate. I think everyone bought it for the graphics.
 
It's a graphically stunning, but dull game with weird concessions that made the first game fun. I couldn't be tasked with continuing on after the first 4 hours.
 
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