Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was already ported to PC before they announced the remaster. Now, Sony has created the Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster that requires players to create a PSN account to be able to play the game. This has been a hugely controversial move by Sony, as it lands them in hot water with players every single time a PlayStation game gets ported to PC and requires a PSN account. Last Friday, the original Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was delisted on Steam and the Epic Games Store to make way for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. It seems those who don’t own the game will now be forced to buy the remaster instead of the original PC port.
Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was previously available in countries where Steam could be accessed. While the Steam page for the Complete Edition is still live, people are no longer able to purchase the game itself. Instead, Steam users are prompted to either pre-order Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered or Horizon Forbidden West.
Previously, Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was available straight after the remaster was announced, but then PlayStation quietly upped the price of the original to replicate its starting price when the game was first released. It went from $29.99 to $49.99 on the PlayStation store. In the six years the game was available in the store, this was the first time the game experienced a price bump, with the game going on sale frequently and the price dropping to a fixed rate of $29.99 in the past.
Pulling the Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is a risky choice made by Sony, as it will make it more difficult for customers to be able to play the game depending on what country they’re in. The Remastered release will be out on October 31 but will require a PSN account. Sony’s PlayStation Network is not officially available in more than a hundred countries, with most of them being in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.
As stated before, there have been previous games ported to PC by Sony that also require a PSN account, such as Until Dawn and God of War Ragnarok, which has proved to be a point of contention for many players. When Helldivers 2 was released on PC, Sony tried to make it a requirement for players to link to a PlayStation Network account, which led to review bombing. This was a quickly reversed decision. Whether that will happen for Horizon Zero Dawn remains to be seen, but considering that Until Dawn and God of War Ragnarok both still require PSN accounts, it’s unlikely.
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