Horizon Forbidden West dev diary confirms 2021 release date, "virtually no loading screens"

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Plus more details on the Forbidden West itself

(Image credit: Guerrilla Games)

Developer Guerrilla Games has confirmed that Horizon Forbidden West will launch on PS5 in 2021 in a new dev diary starring game director Mathijs de Jonge. 

A release date was sorely absent from the Horizon Forbidden West reveal at the big PS5 show earlier this month, so while we still only have a year to go on, it's nice to have something on the calendar. The dev diary also touched on some of the game's PS5-enabled selling points, as well as the stakes of Aloy's next adventure.

"With the PS5's SSD, there will be virtually no loading screens," Jonge says, echoing sentiments from system architect Mark Cerny as well as several other PS5 developers. "In an open-world game like Horizon Forbidden West, if you open up the map and fast travel from one end to the other, or restart from a checkpoint, it will be super fast. When you boot up the game, you're right there in the action." 

The region you'll be fast traveling around spans Utah to the Pacific coast, Jonge says, and features many new threats. The map is "a bit bigger" than the original game, and it's filled with "dozens" of new machines. Those machines include turtle-like Shellsnappers, pterodactyl-inspired Sunwings, and the mammothian Tremortusk. Some of these machines will be hijacked and souped-up by a new hostile tribe, while other new tribes may aid Aloy in her quest.

And what is her quest? Well, as expected, the red overgrowth seen in all the game's trailers is a big part of it. This crimson infection is killing the flora, fauna, and tribes of the Forbidden West, and it seems to have caused some extreme weather cycles as well. Naturally, Aloy strikes out to find out where it's coming from and how to fix it. 

Here are all the upcoming PS5 games that we know of. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.