Can Horizon make room for itself on the big screen?

This week at CES, Sony revealed the addition of more More video games To the already large list of mods, including Guerrilla Games Horizon privilege. after The Netflix series in question It collapsed after abuse allegations against showrunner Steve Blackman, and Sony decided to turn it into a full-length film.

Among PlayStation’s first-party lineup, Horizon It occupies a strange space. While its two main games appear to have sold well, the series has gained some reputation online as an “industrial factory” backed by PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst, who previously ran Guerrilla during its production. Horizon Zero dawn. There was also a public backlash against Sony’s growth efforts Everything he could In franchise, and Horizon Certainly steps have been taken to expand. Along with a third single-player game in development, there was Mountain Call VR game, there are at least two multiplayer spin-offs — one CooperativeAnd the other MMO game— and last year’s double whammy for A.J Lego derivative game And the first game was re-released on PlayStation 5. Next to Naughty Dog last of us, This may be the most persistent PlayStation franchise in terms of frequently reminding you of its existence, and if you know how people feel about this franchise’s tendency to never go away, you’ll know that’s far from a compliment.

Horizon She’s always been an odd duck, a lot of which we could be entitled to when It exists. Previous first party PS titles such as God of War Ragnarok or Marvel Spider-Man 2 They came out in the midst of busy periods, but at least they had the ability to carve their own niche. Seeing the trailers for Kratos and Atreus taking on a wolf, or Spideys doing the same to Venom, made you want to make time for them. PlayStation makes blockbuster games and these two titles, in addition to last of us, Capture your attention as blockbuster films often do, whether released in the summer or at Christmas. To Guerrilla’s credit, both are key Horizon Games tried to get similar attention, it’s just that their momentum was completely and laughably undermined.

Zero dawn It was released in February 2017, just three days before the Nintendo Switch launched alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That game’s impact can only be described as meteoric, both for Nintendo and the industry as a whole. Breath of the wild It changed the way critics and players viewed games from that particular franchise and open-world titles in general, and dominated much of the 2017 conversation. Come 2022, Guerrilla was released forbidden horizon west, Which was released only a full week ago Al-Din ring. He loves breathing, FromSoftware’s gothic roguelike was a game-changer that people couldn’t stop talking about, which in turn sucked all the oxygen out of the room. It helped Things From’s profile grow throughout the 2000s thanks to him Dark souls Games, 2019 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, And a little PS4 game called Bloodborne.

So, yeah, things weren’t always so smooth Horizon An instant favorite, it can sometimes feel like it’s a step or three behind its contemporary open-world or RPG peers. But the games are good in their own right. Zero dawn and Forbidden West Both were fairly well-regarded critically and commercially, and if anything, their resilience despite overpowering greater competition may have endeared them to gamers. The series isn’t really an underdog among the PlayStation Pantheon, and that honor, depending on who you ask, might go to Days ago— but she manages to feel like one in part because of how different she is from her first-party peers. In 2017, the talk at the time Anonymous 4 And those coming like God of war or Marvel Spider-Man He had a built-in audience that had an idea of ​​what to expect. Horizon It was a notable departure for Guerrilla, who spent the late 2000s and early 2000s on her series of… Kill zone Shooters, so the shift from military sci-fi to post-apocalyptic was attracting attention.

It’s always been there persuasive on Horizon This clearly resonated with audiences, even as the series continued to drag on Appropriation of indigenous people and indigenous people. Maybe it was an appearance Robot animals Or the fun of taking their points, or the games that are being eliminated More madness (But still very logical) twists and turns in their stories. It’s also possible that he’s just series protagonist Aloy, who first appeared when the Triple-A developers were starting a new, ongoing series (and Increasingly more diverse) wave Women-led major games. It took almost a full decade Public criticism against E3 2014 It’s very frustrating for studios to make games with more women in them, but whatever, that’s just the way it’s been. Guerrilla PlayStation gave the first-party franchise primarily driven by Aloy’s relationships, both platonic and… romanticwith women of all walks of life, and this approach has since become part of the threesome’s playbook.

With a large amount of public goodwill Horizon I was able to build, and taking advantage of that makes sense. But there are challenges ahead for these various projects, namely the increased stakes of persistent multiplayer games and Sony’s tendency to stand in the way of its own films. So far, the series has held its own against two major gaming competitors, but these are two different beasts compared to an entire genre that’s slowly coming to fruition He closed himself off Or the parent company Downsizing plans Previously (and aloud) in stone. However, things are shaking up, can we at least? no Has Guerrilla fallen into a vicious cycle where they’ve been remastering and remaking games for half a decade? please?

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