The game industry is always examining supposed leaks and rumors, but the claim that Horizon Forbidden Westwould be delayed into 2022 was one of the biggest of the last month. Horizon Forbidden West once looked like it would be Sony's big holiday 2021 game, but at Gamescom 2021, Guerrilla Games confirmed the leak. The Horizon Zero Dawn sequel won't release until early 2021. It's definitely a shame that the game needs more time to be developed, especially considering how Guerrilla once expressed optimism that the game would release in 2021 in spite of some minor delays. It seems that there's just no way that it can go gold within this year anymore, so fans will have to wait.
However, Horizon Forbidden West's delay isn't all bad. Sony might lose out on missing a holiday 2021 release for the game, but the industry will be just fine. There's plenty of other games like Halo Infinite and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl releasing by the end of this year that'll keep video game lovers entertained well into 2022. Although Horizon Forbidden West might not be a part of 2021's last wave of games, it has an important place in the early 2022 game release schedule now. Horizon Forbidden West will lead the charge of newly released games in a year that'll hopefully be free of 2020 and 2021's development difficulties.
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Horizon Forbidden West Has Good Company in 2022
Even the first month of 2022 will offer a lot of great games at Horizon Forbidden West's side. For example, FromSoftware fans have been dying to get their hands on Elden Ring for years, in large part due to FromSoftware's unshakable long-term silence on the game. Thankfully, Elden Ring came out of hiding in 2021, and now fans know that they'll get to play the RPG in January 2022. Nintendo has a major game on the way for January 2022 as well. That game is Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a totally new take on the Pokemon series that promises some impressive levels of open-world exploration and free-form Pokemon interaction.
Horizon Forbidden West won't release until February 2022, but there's plenty of other influential games set to release in that month too. For example, Gamescom 2021 also featured a major announcement from Volition and Deep Silver: a Saints Row reboot. Volition clearly has a brand new vision for the Saints Row franchise, which hasn't had a new game in quite a few years, so it's great that fans will get to experience Volition's vision in only a few months. February 2022 also features Sifu, an indie martial arts game that Sony seems to have a lot of admiration for, based on its regular touting of the game. Horizon Forbidden West is only the latest game to join an increasingly strong early 2022.
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Horizon Forbidden West's Release Will Benefit 2022
All of these influential games slated for early 2022 are a good sign for the game industry. Everybody knows that COVID-19 is largely responsible for causing constant development setbacks for game developers everywhere, both in 2020 and 2021. As the game industry adjusts to the pandemic's impact and gets back on its feet, there's more and more hope that 2022 will be a more normal year for the game anniversary. Horizon Forbidden West's delay shows the pandemic's impact, but Horizon Forbidden West is also invaluable for getting a new year off to a good start, inspiring hope for exciting releases and a sense of normalcy.
The Horizon Forbidden West delay's confirmation is an inconvenience, but there's plenty of good things about it. Naturally, Horizon Forbidden West will be a stronger, better game because of the extra development time that Guerrilla Games has, but it's also good just to have a solid release date for the game, even if it's later than fans hoped. On top of that, Horizon Forbidden West is likely to help set the tone for 2022's games. If the sequel is really solid, it'll inspire optimism in fans and developers everywhere. In spite of all the obstacles that studios big and small have faced, there's still hope for games like Horizon Forbidden West to shape the game industry for the better.
Horizon Forbidden West releases February 18, 2022 for PS4 and PS5.
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