70% Of 'Horizon Forbidden West' UK Players Paid More Due To Confusing Pricing

We’ve had Horizon Forbidden West in our hands for a good few days now, and if your Twitter feed is anything like mine, it would seem that no one who gets into Guerrilla Games' sequel to 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn can pull themselves away from it. In our review, we called it “a clear step up from the first game” adding that it “takes everything that worked in its acclaimed predecessor and builds upon it in spectacular style”. 

It’s probably not at all surprising then that Aloy’s latest adventure has had a really good opening weekend. According to GamesIndustry.biz's Christopher Dring, the UK’s boxed charts, where the game is currently sitting pretty at number one, also show that it’s the second biggest PS5 retail launch, behind Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales. 

While you're here, be sure to check out some gameplay footage for Horizon Forbidden West below.

The thing is though, that’s not exactly a good thing, which definitely sounds really strange with no context. Why wouldn’t we want it to do well? Well, it turns out that not even a third of those sales were on the PS4, which means a lot of people have missed out on a really significant saving. 

Look, don’t worry, I’m not trying to tell you that you should be opting to play the previous-gen version if you’ve been lucky enough to secure yourself an elusive new-gen console, far from it. However, let’s not forget that anyone who buys the PS4 edition of the game can upgrade to the PS5 version for free, meaning you can get the exact same experience for £10 less, which is really significant.

As for the rest of the data, physical sales are apparently down by around a third in comparison to Zero Dawn’s release, but that’s really not a big deal when you consider how much more of a thing digital sales are in general now, certainly compared to 2017. Speaking of which, the digital sales will apparently be revealed later this week, so it’ll be interesting to see what those are. 

Physical sales are down about a third over the launch of Horizon: Frozen Dawn. This isn't surprising when you consider the PS5 availability and the fact the digital market is so much bigger today than it was 5 years ago (download data arrives later next week)

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) February 20, 2022

Anyway, hopefully I’ve not just hit you with a very annoying realisation on this fine Tuesday morning that you’ve essentially been overcharged for a slightly different game box - but if you’re yet to pick up Forbidden West for yourself, do keep that little trick in mind. Of course, anyone who does choose to do this will have to deal with the extra hassle of the upgrade process, but listen, £10 could buy so many Freddos. Less and less of them as time goes on, but y’know. Get yourself some Freddos.