LogIn"I was hoping that the sequel would do even better in terms of sales."
Guerrilla Games
PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida has expressed surprise about the sales of Horizon Forbidden West compared to its predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn, saying he was hoping the sequel would do "even better."
In a live stream with Kinda Funny Games (thanks, Games Radar+) following his departure from PlayStation a few days ago, Yoshida revealed that he had expected the sequel to outperform the original in terms of sales.
"The one I was a bit surprised [about] in terms of the number of units [sold] was the second Horizon game.
I love Horizon and the game did well, and I was hoping that the sequel would do even better in terms of sales. The game was bigger and great, but I don't think the second one did as many units as the first one."
The first title in the franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn, was released in 2017 and received both critical and commercial successes, contributing to 24.3 million of the over 32.7 million copies the franchise has sold. "Often times, the second game does better because there are already millions of fans," Yoshida noted. However, the huge gap in sales numbers was too obvious to ignore, with the Forbidden West selling 8.4 million units, a number which was not that great compared with the original game.
Although the sequel didn't meet Yoshida's sales expectations, the franchise has been a major success for PlayStation and attracted a lot of loyal fans of the IP. Last year, a live-action adaptation based on Horizon Zero Dawn was said to be in the works with Netflix, and the original game received a remaster last October. Additionally, earlier this month, a movie adaptation based on Horizon Zero Dawn was announced.
Even retired, Shuhei Yoshida remains active in the industry. He had announced his new role as a video game voice actor in an upcoming open-world crime game titled Promise Mascot Agency.
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