As much as consumers are allowed to complain about recent price hikes in the gaming industry, such as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's rise to $70, it is a pretty luxurious era for game prices. Adjusted for inflation, games have always been just as expensive - if not more - than they are now, even including first-party AAA titles that wear $70 price tags. With the abundance of seasonal sales on most platforms, games very rarely stay at a premium price anymore. This makes Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores' recent price announcement all the more interesting.
Just announced by Sony and Guerilla Games, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will retail for just $19.99 when it launches on April 19, 2023. For fans in the UK, Burning Shores will cost just £15.99. As large-scale DLC expansions go, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is a fairly priced one, and it marks the continuation of an intriguing PlayStation trend along with previous first-party titles like Ghost of Tsushima.
Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and Ghost of Tsushima's Iki Island Set the Stage for More
Sony's first-party library is of extreme importance to the current PlayStation brand. While first-party exclusives have always encouraged people to buy one console over the other, that's never been quite as important as it is today, with PlayStation thriving on its vast library of stellar exclusives. From Marvel's Spider-Man, to God of War, to Ratchet and Clank, to Horizon Forbidden West, PlayStation's current success is tied directly to its first-party output.
Paid DLC expansions have never really been something that Sony has pushed its first-party developers to create. God of War, Ratchet and Clank, and the Uncharted series all never received paid expansions, despite how successful each entry continues to be for the publisher. That said, a few DLC expansions have released for first-party PlayStation titles, but they're often very fairly priced.
Despite releasing almost directly opposite The Last of Us 2, Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima managed to be a big success for PlayStation. In two years, Ghost of Tsushima sold just under 10 million copies, and while this doesn't quite compare to juggernauts like God of War Ragnarok (which managed to sell over 11 million units in its first 10 weeks), it's still impressive - especially for a brand-new IP. When it was time for Ghost of Tsushima to receive its expansion, Sony didn't get too greedy, pricing the DLC at a reasonable $19.99.
For $19.99, fans got a lot of bang for their buck. Though Iki Island wasn't massive, it was still a dense new location for players to explore, filled with tons of side activities and collectibles. Players also received a new five-hour single-player campaign. All in all, Ghost of Tsushima's Iki Island DLC gave fans over 12 hours of content for $19.99, which is a pretty great deal. With the announcement that Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC will also be just $19.99, it seems as though a new precedent is being set for PlayStation first-party expansions, whereby for $20 players will receive at least a whole new campaign, and a unique open-world location to explore.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5, and the Burning Shores DLC is scheduled to release on April 19 exclusively for PS5.
