This is a little PSA to note that Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla Games’ highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn, is $10 cheaper if you pre-order it through your PlayStation 4 rather than buying the PlayStation 5 version.
Although the PlayStation 5 version of Horizon Forbidden West is listed as $69.99, you can purchase the PS4 version of the game for $59.99 and later upgrade it to the PS5 version as a free digital upgrade. You can do this via the PlayStation 4’s own store app or via Sony’s web-based store. However, this is the last cross-gen PS4/PS5 game that will enjoy this free upgrade policy.
A little history. In late August of last year, Guerrilla Games confirmed that Horizon Forbidden West, originally scheduled for release during the 2021 holiday season, was being delayed to the first quarter of 2022 due to “production challenges” from the pandemic. A week later, Sony announced a confusing cavalcade of PS4 and PS5 editions of Horizon Forbidden West that didn’t offer a free “next-gen” PS5 upgrade.
This was an unwelcome surprise because Sony had previously committed to offering free next-gen upgrades for all of its initial slate of cross-gen PS5 games, a category which Horizon Forbidden West, before its delays, had been considered part of.
Read More: Sony Will No Longer Offer Free Next-Gen Upgrades For Its First-Party Games
Swift online pushback resulted in Sony walking back its no-upgrades stance on Horizon Forbidden West, but it cautioned that Forbidden West would be the last such free upgrade. In a blog post in which Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan admitted to Sony “missing the mark” with the initial Horizon Forbidden West edition offerings, he also confirmed that PS5 upgrades for all cross-gen games following Forbidden West will cost $10.
Long story short, go and save yourself 10 bucks by preordering the PS4 version on either your PS4 or the web-based PlayStation store. If Sony starts asking questions, just say you were using your Focus to scan the environment just like Aloy would’ve done, when you happened upon an intriguing proposition...
Horizon Forbidden West comes out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on February 18, 2022.