In a blatant display of corporate greed, Sony seems determined to make consumers foot the bill for their financial losses, particularly after the flop of Concord.
Just recently, Sony announced a “remaster” of Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that’s only seven years old and lacks any real nostalgic appeal.
This remaster comes despite the fact that Horizon: Zero Dawn already saw a PC release in 2020, making a remaster feel unnecessary. Yet, under the leadership of Hermen Hulst, former co-founder of Guerilla Games, Sony greenlit the project anyway.
To add insult to injury, Sony raised the price of the original base game, conveniently preventing consumers from purchasing it at a lower cost and opting for a cheaper $10 upgrade to the remaster.
Sony has now taken things a step further by delisting the original Horizon Zero Dawn from both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
To make matters worse, they’ve mandated the requirement of a PlayStation Network (PSN) account to access the upcoming single-player remaster, which seems set to be one of Sony’s worst-performing PC releases to date, second only to Concord.
This isn’t Sony’s first attempt at forcing PSN integration into the PC gaming world. After a failed effort to introduce account linking in Helldivers 2, which aimed to give Sony more control over PC players, including targeting and banning “problematic” gamers, the backlash was swift.
Over 200,000 negative reviews flooded Steam in response to the PSN mandate. While Sony eventually backed down, they retaliated by removing Helldivers 2 from purchase in over 170 countries worldwide.
Following that, Sony doubled down on PSN requirements for PC versions of their games. Ghost of Tsushima players were forced to use a PSN account to access the Legends online mode, and God of War Ragnarok which struggled with sales had a hard PSN account requirement, despite being a single-player only game.
Now, Horizon Zero Dawn’s remaster has followed suit, with the original version being removed from Steam, leaving no option for those in the 170 affected countries to purchase the game on the largest PC storefront.
Sony’s heavy-handed approach continues to alienate and piss off PC gamers, as the forced PSN linkage and restricted availability are driving backlash, making the remaster an increasingly harder sell.
The Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition Steam page remains live, but the original game is no longer available for individual purchase. Instead, players are now offered a pre-purchase option for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered through a bundle deal or directed toward buying its sequel, Forbidden West.
While the game remains available on platforms like GOG, this situation highlights the increasingly problematic nature of the digitalized gaming industry. You don’t truly own the games you buy anymore, you’re merely purchasing a license to access content, which can be revoked or restricted at any point, for any reason.
Delisting older versions of games after a remaster is not uncommon, but many publishers choose a more consumer-friendly route by keeping both versions available. Sony, however, is not giving players that choice and is essentially forcing their hand with the remaster.
The backlash has been substantial. Fans already voiced strong dissatisfaction over a remaster of Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that’s barely seven years old and only hit the PC platform four years ago.
The remaster offers marginal visual improvements and an inexplicably redone motion capture simply to waste its budget, none of which the community demanded.
If anyone wanted to purchase the Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC, they’ve likely already done so by now. But after losing over $200 million thanks to Concord, Sony seems intent on nickel-and-diming consumers to recoup their losses, if that somehow wasn’t already obvious judging from the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro.
By releasing lackluster remakes at minimal cost while demanding top dollar, Sony seems intent on extracting every last cent from their audience. Given these predatory practices, it’s morally justifiable to pirate the game, especially when Sony is willing to delist and restrict a remastered version of a game that’s only four years old in 170 different countries.
