Horizon Zero Dawn Being Pulled From PS Plus Might Be Good News In Disguise

Summary Horizon Zero Dawn is leaving the PlayStation Plus game catalog in May.

Restricting access to HZD may be in preparation for the announcement of the long-rumored remaster.

The rumored HZD remaster may face criticism, as the original game is still graphically impressive and playable on PS5.

Although the impending departure of Horizon Zero Dawn from PlayStation Plus is unwelcome news for subscribers, there might be a silver lining for more general fans of the series. Originally released for the PS4 in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn very quickly became one of the most popular games on the console, enough that it later received a sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, and was ported to PC in 2020. Later on, the game would become part of Sony's ongoing subscription service, PS Plus, allowing more PlayStation owners to play it at a reduced cost.

As has recently been announced, however, Horizon Zero Dawn will be leaving the PS Plus catalog on May 25, 2024, and will no longer be available to subscribers after that date. While subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus tend to have rotating libraries, with games coming and going on a monthly basis, HZD's situation is uncommon, as the game is a first-party PlayStation exclusive published by Sony itself, and presumably not subject to stipulations from outside parties. So, while Horizon Zero Dawn departing PS Plus's catalog is disappointing, it may also indicate future plans for the series.

Related Every PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, & Premium Game Available May 2024 May 2024 is bringing a new lineup of games to PlayStation Plus, and there's definitely some exciting action-packed additions this time around.

PlayStation Plus Changes Could Confirm A Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster

2017's HZD Has Long Been Rumored To Be Receiving A Remaster

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With HZD set to leave PS Plus's library on May 25, and a PlayStation-associated showcase rumored to be taking place within the same month, a previously rumored remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn may be getting an official announcement around the time of the original's departure. Presumably, this remaster would update the game's visuals to take advantage of the PS5's more powerful hardware, with some potential for minor gameplay additions or extra features to go along with the enhanced visuals.

It wouldn't be the first time that a Sony-published game received a remaster relatively soon after it was released - The Last of Us series has notoriously received multiple remasters. The Last of Us Remastered brought the PS3 game to the PS4 only a year later, but The Last of Us Part 1 was a more significant remake for the PS5 in 2022. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered similarly made relatively slight improvements to the original's visuals less than four years after its initial release.

In both cases, the remasters garnered criticism, not necessarily for their overall quality, but for the fact that both games were already graphically impressive and, at least in the case of TLOU 2, already playable on the platforms that they were being remastered for. Horizon Zero Dawn is playable on PS5 via backward compatibility, and a remaster is likely to face much of the same scrutiny.

A Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster Is Still Seen As Unnecessary

While a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn could be a positive for hardcore fans of the original game, the removal of the original game from PS Plus could be a net negative for the franchise's wider audience. Assuming the remaster isn't immediately available on PlayStation Plus, and assuming that it's sold for full price, anyone wanting to play the game would need to pay significantly more for something that rumors have specified is more likely to be a remaster than a full remake.

Taking into account that the original Horizon Zero Dawn is still a graphically impressive game, it's somewhat doubtful that a prospective remaster could make enough noticeable improvements to make up for the (presumably) increased cost - the same problem that many PlayStation owners already had with The Last of Us. Whereas remasters and remakes in the wider industry are typically reserved for older games with limited accessibility for modern audiences, a cynical view could see Sony's modern remakes and remasters as a way to pad the publisher's release schedule and squeeze more money out of its most popular franchises.

Related PlayStation's Remakes & Remasters Keep Making The Same Mistake PlayStation has developed a pattern of remastering and remaking games that are only one generation old, missing the point and alienating consumers.

Of course, there could be tangible benefits to the publisher's remaking habits as well. Reportedly, according to a tweet from Naughty Dog environmental artist Anthony Vaccaro, the more recent remake of The Last of Us was a game that didn't require crunch from the developers to complete, something which Naughty Dog had previously been heavily criticized for regarding The Last of Us Part 2. While Guerrilla Games, the developer of the Horizon series, hasn't garnered the same reputation for crunch, a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn could still serve as a less heavy workload before future projects.

Source: Anthony Vaccaro/X (formerly Twitter)