With the direction gaming is going in with crossplay and fewer exclusives, it makes sense that PlayStation is bringing more games to PC, and Horizon Zero Dawn is a good example of this. Although the game was initially loved and praised, with the PC port being a great way to play the game, the latest remaster has not shared in the original's success, nor has there been much noise about it. It has come and gone without much fanfare, and the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster is not the only title to suffer from this problem.

It should be noted that this latest version of Horizon Zero Dawn is a remaster, not a remake. It might not have cost as much compared to the likes of the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon Souls remakes, but that doesn't mean that Sony won't be alarmed by the concerning numbers behind its latest remaster. It isn't as though the original game wasn't well received and hasn't enjoyed success long after its release. It just feels like the wrong game to remaster, and this could change PlayStation's approach in the future.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered Isn't Performing Well

The Interest In This Remaster Wasn't There To Begin With

Although PlayStation is often secretive about sales and player numbers, Steam is much more overt with its data and, according to the remaster for $10 rather than paying the full price.

The original port of Horizon Zero Dawn can only be bought on Steam as a bundle with the remastered version.

A big reason for this is that the general audience for Horizon Zero Dawn doesn't seem to particularly care about the game getting remastered. Interest was minimal to begin with, especially since the original Horizon Zero Dawn still looks good, and the remastered edition hasn't made massive strides in improving the graphical fidelity. Yes, it does look better, but not enough for people to pay more for it when the original version is more than adequate. Another issue is that the original can be played on every platform the remastered version can be played on.

In general, there isn't much of a reason to get the remaster when the original is cheaper and already on enough modern platforms. Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the game to remaster when other titles have yet to make their way onto PC. Almost everyone who wants to play Horizon Zero Dawn probably already owns the original version, whether for PS4, which the PS5 is backward compatible with, or on PC. There just isn't a market for this game's remaster, and if Sony wants to push the series into the limelight, another proper sequel would do the job better.

PlayStation Remasters Have Mostly Been Unnecessary

Horizon Zero Dawn Isn't The Only Game Suffering From Unnecessary Remasters

It seems that PlayStation has not learned from its other remaster mistakes from the past, since Horizon Zero Dawn is not the only game that got a new addition that no one was asking for. The Last of Us already had a remaster for the PS4 that still looks great, and rather than just porting this version to PC, the whole game got remade from the ground up. In that case, The Last of Us Part 1 was the game's PC debut, which likely assisted in the game performing much better on Steam than Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered currently is.

Despite The Last of Us Part 1 doing a lot better than Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, it does show a worrying trend of PlayStation making unnecessary remakes and remasters. The Last of Us Part 2 was remastered earlier this year despite the original version already being one of the best-looking games ever made. While the new version does add some features, it shouldn't have been a remaster and should have been described more as a director's cut, like with Ghost of Tsushima, since not a lot has changed visually other than a few tweaks.

Ghost of Tsushima's director's cut is the only version available on Steam.

Continuing to make new editions of The Last of Us does at least make sense, since the franchise has a massively successful HBO series and a couple of Game of the Year Awards to its name, but pushing the Horizon series feels forced in comparison. The games are good, but the franchise isn't as popular despite turning up everywhere, from a Genshin Impact Aloy character to its own LEGO game titled LEGO Horizon Adventures. With IPs like God of War and Spider-Man at its disposal, it doesn't feel like there's a need for Sony to lean on Horizon this much.

Sony Needs To Remaster The Right Games

Bringing Bloodborne To PC Would Print Money

The relative failure of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered doesn't mean that remakes and remasters are a bad idea in general for PlayStation, and the hope is that the company won't see it that way. Sony just needs to be smarter about what games it should remake and remaster. Up until recently, it has done a decent job, remaking Shadow of the Colossus and Demon Souls, both of which were brilliant for showing off the technical capabilities of their consoles at the time.

In general, it feels like Sony needs to pick either a classic to remaster or go for specific games that have a massive amount of appeal despite not being that old. Bloodborne would be a great choice to remaster or even remake. The game deserves to run at 60FPS, and bringing it to PC would significantly expand the audience, considering how big Soulsborne titles are on PC. A Sly Cooper or Jak and Daxter remaster or remake could also be on the cards, and these would be better choices than recent titles like Horizon Zero Dawn.

With the overall failure of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, PlayStation could, and probably should, step away from trying to force the franchise into being something that it isn't ready to be yet. A few more installments that are just as good as the first two games are needed to help build a proper legacy to make the title a true icon of the PlayStation roster, and an unnecessary remaster isn't going to help matters. Horizon Zero Dawn shouldn't try to copy what The Last of Us has done, as that series is an extreme outlier when it comes to reaching icon status.

Source: SteamDB | Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered