Why Horizon Forbidden West’s Rumored Delay Would Suck More than You Think

There’s a rumor going around — unconfirmed at the time of this writing — that Horizon Forbidden West may be delayed. It wouldn’t be unusual, as there have been a lot of games delayed in the 2020/21 pandemic. It’s presumed that Sony will confirm the delay on the upcoming State of Play next week. If they do, it’ll really suck for PlayStation gamers, and not just for the fact that they won’t be getting a game that they’ve been interested in for a very long time.

When the PlayStation 5 launched last year, it had a slight edge over the Xbox Series X/S because it had a few exclusive titles, whereas the Xbox console had none. Xbox has been on the back foot for at least the last console generation as it struggles to keep up with PlayStation’s explosive sales and critically acclaimed exclusive titles. And a gap in major releases will not hurt Sony very much in the long run, given that the PlayStation 5 is selling so well already. I’m not presuming to make a comment on future sales of the consoles.

But the problem is that the PlayStation 5 is getting fewer and fewer exclusive titles for the upcoming holiday season, and that would really suck for people who either already have PS5s or want to get one. Several of the upcoming PS5 games are not console exclusive. We’ve got the Ghost of Tsushima Iki Island expansion, and Deathloop. Meanwhile, Xbox is pumping more and more titles into Game Pass, keeping their consoles fresh and valuable for gamers.

There’s not going to be a slump in sales, but there will be a slump in great PS5 games to play for the next little while. The games that have come out for the console so far have been so good — Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, even Astro’s Playroom — that it would be a shame to see that momentum stall during the critical holiday season.