Horizon Forbidden West is getting its first major expansion, titled Burning Shores, which will take Aloy to a decimated Los Angeles next year. This DLC had been leaked earlier this week with reports that the next chapter in the story of Horizon Forbidden West would take players to California.
Hints and teases towards the titular Burning Shores coupled with a previous leak on the Horizon Forbidden West DLC led to many predicting that the DLC would be revealed at The Game Awards 2022 which premiered earlier today. The announcement of this DLC would follow a similar pattern that The Frozen Wilds DLC did by releasing less than a year after Horizon Zero Dawn.
Burning Shores finally got a formal reveal at The Game Awards 2022 with a new trailer showing series protagonist Aloy traversing a run-down Los Angeles on the back of a Sunwing. Multiple Los Angeles landmarks are seen including the Capitol Records Building and the Hollywood Sign. The trailer concludes with a machine moving through the surrounding mountains. In contrast to The Frozen Wilds DLC for Horizon Zero Dawn which took players to the freezing climates of Yellowstone, the Burning Shores appear to be overrun by volcanic activity. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will release for the PS5 on April 19, 2023.
One key detail gamers should keep in mind is that similar to the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077,Burning Shores will only be releasing for the PS5 and not on previous-gen platforms. A statement on Guerilla Games' website reads, "to achieve this grand vision technically and creatively, we’ve made the difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console." Along with the upcoming Horizon Call of the Mountain game for the PSVR 2, the PS5 appears to be the new permanent home of the Horizon series.
One portion of the Horizon fanbase that is particularly affected by this move will be fans who played the PC release of Horizon Zero Dawn. PC players looking to get the rest of the Horizon experience will now have to purchase a PS5, a console that is still hard to find for many. This could potentially be part of an effort from Sony to bring more PC users over to the PS5 by making sequels to successful PC ports exclusive to the console. A similar paradigm has occurred with the release of God of War Ragnarok coming the same year that the 2018 God of War came to PC, thus encouraging PC gamers to purchase PlayStation consoles in order to experience the next chapter in the God of War story. For fans of these franchises, there is perhaps more reason than ever to buy a PS5, and Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is sure to boost sales of the console.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will release for the PS5 on April 19, 2023.
Source: Guerilla Games
