Guerrilla Games’ announcement bombshells the gaming world with a not-so-positive buzz. The studio proclaimed the advent of Horizon Steel Frontiers, a new MMORPG across all platforms along with the collaboration with NCSOFT for mobile and PC including the infamous ‘PURPLE’ platform. The immediate plight of the loyal PlayStation fans was certainly far from a standing ovation, to say the least.
So, what exactly is going on here? Horizon Steel Frontiers will traverse the same Horizon realm as Zero Dawn and Forbidden West but will also provide players with a completely distinct experience by having everyone role-play together in an online context. The main issue inciting the entire controversy is that apart from being accessible on mobile and PC through the NCSOFT platform, there is no mention of a PS5 version anywhere. This is quite an astonishing fact and it could signify that this is a PlayStation Studios IP that has made the decision to bypass PlayStation consoles permanently.
Guerrilla’s announcement tweet was akin to pouring gasoline on the already flaming negative sentiments within the PlayStation community. Instantaneous comments from users such as ‘No PS5 Version 😔’ from user Sekiro 29 or ‘No PS5 version? Bad idea!’ by Tech In Stock UK appeared along with many more similar comments that summed up to dozens and expressed the very same confusion and disappointment as one user wrote, ‘it would not be a Horizon game if it is not available on the flagship console of Sony’.
However, some gamers are really furious and they have decided to voice their upset as loud as they can. For instance, oser LeoRochaArts downright said that it is ‘the worst decision I have ever seen Sony make’ and he even went to the extent of recommending that the fans should remember this when the next installment of the Horizon series is out. TheCrowMan was left wondering why Guerrilla could not just introduce a Monster Hunter-like multiplayer feature in the main games instead of ‘handing it over to a China-based company that will harvest the gamers with microtransactions.’ That’s a tough one.
Moreover, people have not yet come to the terms of the mobile game concept and HarryT44979617 was the first one to share his thoughts on it, labeling it ‘MMORPG mobile cancer’ and further said that it must never come to PS5. Christopher Panlilio made a short yet effective statement ‘Mobile? Yeah that\’s cooked,’ which nicely captured the principal doubt that many hardcore gamers have about the major franchises transitioning to the mobile market.
Still, what is this ‘PURPLE’ thing that is on everybody’s lips? Rich8606 in his reply provides a little context saying that PURPLE is NCSOFT’s Android/iOS gaming platform which got compatible with Windows last year. So, in a way, the PC version could be not a direct port but rather the mobile game utilizing an emulator. This raises further questions about the game’s quality and speed on the different platforms.
This time the announcement was especially intriguing since a lot of players were still on the lookout for updates about Horizon 3. User luscielia wrote ‘Can you just give us the 3rd game instead I’m dying to know how Aloy’s story ends,’ which indicates that this spin-off may not be what the main fanbase was hoping for.
Moreover, a PlayStation Studios’s property skipping consoles completely has raised some questions. WilliansTidus said ‘how did the Playstation leadership let this happen? A Playstation franchise without a PS5 port. Unbelievable.’ This was the shared opinion of many who wonder what the business reason is for excluding the console on which the franchise built its audience.
Nonetheless, there are still some who do not see it that negatively. A few gamers have even begun to adjust to the idea, with Bennxiety saying ‘If it’s anything like Diablo Immortal, count me in,’ but such a comparison may scare some people because of Diablo Immortal’s… complicated image. Another user, Ricardo, who appears to be absolutely confident about the graphics, is pleading ‘Please tell me there’s a PS5 version coming I need to experience this on console!’
The entire issue around the platform exclusivity became quite heated as ultrawideben_YT commented that ‘pc has more exclusive horizon games than the ps5 console has,’ which is indeed the case if we consider this along with the PC ports of the main games. In fact, James8045831037 even referred to it as ‘an Xbox exclusive Horizon game’ if one takes into account that it is going to PC via Windows, although that interpretation is somewhat a loose stretch of the concept of exclusivity.
The most significant thing one can infer from all the criticisms is that the gaming community has very precise ideas on how to treat major franchises. The decision to produce a mobile and PC-only Horizon game has resulted in a massive shift in strategy that has not been accepted by many core players yet.
