PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn will come to PC, it's been confirmed by Sony. This was largely expected – but it doesn't mean you should anticipate every PlayStation exclusive to make the leap in future.
Hermen Hulst, head of worldwide studios at PlayStation, mentioned the port in an interview with PlayStation Blog. PC players can get their hands on it this summer. A Steam page is now live for the game, but there are no system requirements yet. It's the complete edition, with The Frozen Wilds expansion.
"Yes, I can confirm that Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC this summer," Hulst said in an interview that strangely seems to downplay the announcement. "There will be more information coming from Guerrilla, from the new studio directors [Michiel van der Leeuw, JB van Beek, and Angie Smets] pretty soon." Hulst is a co-founder of Guerrilla.
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This is fantastic news for PC players – but don't expect this to be the start of PS4, and later, PS5 games launching on PC day and date.
"I think it's important that we stay open to new ideas of how to introduce more people to PlayStation, and show people maybe what they’ve been missing out on," Hulst elaborated.
"And to maybe put a few minds at ease, releasing one first-party AAA title to PC doesn't necessarily mean that every game now will come to PC. In my mind, Horizon Zero Dawn was just a great fit in this particular instance. We don't have plans for day and date [PC releases], and we remain 100% committed to dedicated hardware."
Mouse and keyboard control will be a great fit for Horizon, which features a lot of precision combat with a bow and arrows. When Kotaku broke the story of Horizon coming to PC back in January, it was suggested that the game would launch on both Steam and the Epic Games Store – but it was noted that plans around this weren't finalized.
Nothing more is said about Horizon on PC in this interview, but as Hulst suggests, more news will be forthcoming.
What next?
Surely this is a test by Sony to see what works on PC – if Horizon sells a lot of copies, PC could become an important secondary market for PlayStation games. Horizon is more than three years old at this point, so the exclusivity period definitely works in PS4 owners' favor.
PC players surely wouldn't complain if they got the likes of Spider-Man, God of War or Dreams years after PlayStation players – but it sounds like Sony is treading carefully, here, so as not to upset its existing player base. Death Stranding, another game once thought to be a PS4 exclusive, is coming to PC on June 2.
Either way, Horizon on PC sounds like a win-win. We can't wait to see how it performs.
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