Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shore’s PS5 Exclusivity Allows for Much Greater Environmental Detail, Developer Says

In December, Sony and Guerrilla announced a full-fledged expansion for Horizon Forbidden West. Titled Burning Shores, it will take protagonist Aloy to a post-post-apocalyptic version of the city of Los Angeles, and unlike the base game, which is available on both PS4 and PS5, the expansion won’t be cross-gen and will be releasing only for PS5.

So what exactly has the expansion’s PS5 exclusivity enabled Guerrilla to do that the developer wasn’t able to do in base game. Answering that question in an interview with the PlayStation Blog, game director Mathijs de Jonge said that players can look forward to environments that will be even more detailed than what the series has always been known for, which sets a very high bar for the expansion indeed.

“One of our key priorities with Horizon games is to add a ton of detail and richness to our environments,” de Jonge said. “On Horizon Forbidden West, everything we added or increased was something we’d need to have a plan around how to optimize for PS4 as well. On Burning Shores, since we can just focus on PS5, we’ve been able to charge forward and we’re really excited about what we’ve been able to pull off in creating this stunning post-post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles.

“The cityscape ruins of LA and its surroundings are highly detailed and require a lot of processing power as well as fast streaming technology to run properly; especially when the player is flying over the lands and can see a lot at once. One of the settlements is situated in and around those detailed ruins, and we were able to squeeze a lot of activity in there.”

de Jonge went on to add that one particular battle scene in Burning Shores requires “a LOT of memory and power” that Guerrilla was able to pull off thanks to the PS5’s hardware capabilities- though obviously, he didn’t give much details on what that battle scene will entail.

“Another notable one is a particular battle scene that requires a LOT of memory and processing power,” he said. “To achieve this grand vision both technically and creatively, we definitely were thankful for the many advantages that the PS5 hardware brings.”

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is set to launch on April 19.