Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered may not have felt necessary to many when rumors about its existence first began circulating, but since it launched, it has proven its worth tenfold. Its plethora of meaningful changes and enhancements have given a new lease of life to an already exceptional game, ensuring that its legacy can continue untainted by the handful of issues that damped the original experience. It is absolutely the gold standard for PlayStation remasters, and a good indication of the direction future iterations could go in.

However, while HZD Remastered is worth it, there is a lot more that PlayStation can do in order to alleviate its biggest issue. This remaster, alongside the many other remasters that PlayStation has been producing during the PS5's lifetime, is just a small step in the right direction. Sony needs to take inspiration from one of its biggest competitors in order to alleviate its release schedule difficulties and see a return to the PS4's era of experimentation.

PlayStation Needs Smaller Releases Like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

It Helps Fill The Gaps Between Its Bigger Games

The PlayStation 5 is in dire need of video games as fans continue to feel like there's simply nothing to play on it despite being several years old by this point. While great games have launched on it, ballooning production costs and a greater focus on cinematic narrative-driven experiences have meant that Sony won't be releasing many of its highly anticipated games for some time. Of course, it has committed to releasing one major title a year, which is shaping 2025 to be one of the PS5's best years for releases. However, there are still gaps in its calendar.

Luckily, there's an obvious solution, one that one of its biggest competitors, Nintendo, has been doing for quite some time. PlayStation needs smaller releases to launch between its bigger games, games that don't require years of development time and hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. It needs indie games and double-A titles to launch under its publishing banner in order to satiate fans while they wait for games like Ghost of Yotei. So far, PlayStation has been attempting this to a degree, although it's largely with remasters, such as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

Frankly, especially considering all the HZD Remaster failing commercially, it is a step in the right direction, at least when it comes to how Sony should approach its remasters in the future. However, what PlayStation needs more than remasters are original indie titles or, perhaps more importantly, spin-offs.

LEGO Horizon Adventures Proves PlayStation Is Learning From Nintendo

Spin-Offs Can Be Effective At Drawing In New Audiences

LEGO Horizon Adventures may have been another PlayStation flop, but it's absolutely the kind of game it should be publishing. It's a unique spin-off of one of its most beloved franchises that appeals to a new audience while maintaining a lot of what made its original audience love it so much. While it certainly has its flaws, LEGO Horizon Adventures feels like the most unique thing PlayStation has done in quite a while, and that should absolutely be celebrated.

While it certainly has its flaws, LEGO Horizon Adventures feels like the most unique thing PlayStation has done in quite a while, and that should absolutely be celebrated.

In many ways, it shows that Sony is learning from Nintendo. Nintendo often produces wildly different games based on the same IP. RPG fans get Mario RPG and Paper Mario, party game fans get Mario Party, racing fans get Mario Kart, platformer fans get the mainline titles, and fighting game fans get Super Smash Bros. There's even Luigi's Mansion for Luigi superfans and the Wario games for those who want something truly weird and wonderful. All of these utilize familiar characters and IP but completely switch up the genre to ensure that absolutely everyone is on board the Mario bandwagon.

No one else has ever really done this - there isn't a Halo Party or Halo Racing, for example - which has always seemed a little surprising. Nintendo has found great success in its many spin-offs, with several of them becoming entire franchises in and of themselves. While Sony has dabbled somewhat in spin-offs in the past, including the maligned fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, it hasn't felt like a priority for the publisher for quite some time.

However, it looks like that could be changing, at least when it comes to the Horizon franchise. In an attempt to continue its push for live service titles, PlayStation is publishing the somewhat dubious Horizon Online, which will be released sometime in 2025 and will likely serve to tide Horizon fans over until the next mainline entry. It's a small step, but in combination with LEGO Horizon Adventures, it is definitely a move in the right direction.

Smaller-Budget Games Allow For More Experimentation

It Lets Developers Take IP In New Directions

PlayStation is absolutely no stranger to smaller-budget games. In the mid-2010s, it was publishing a number of smaller games from its various first-party developers, including the likes of Knack, Concrete Genie, Dreams, Gravity Rush, Little Big Planet, Tokyo Jungle, Journey, and even Helldivers. It's staggering just how different the PS4 and PS5's first-party libraries are, even at the same point in the PS4's lifespan that the PS5 is at now. Of course, by that point, PlayStation hadn't quite transitioned into its incredibly expensive cinematic narrative single-player adventures and felt comfortable experimenting more.

In many ways, the expectation that next-gen consoles should offer next-gen experiences and little else is hurting this sense of experimentation that was prevalent during the PS4 era. The PS5 Pro and its library of enhanced games are indicative of that, a console entirely dedicated to making the already gorgeous triple-A games look and run slightly better. However, while it is true that showing off the power of these impressive consoles is a worthwhile endeavor, it can come at the cost of producing more memorable experiences.

The PS5 needs more fun spin-offs like LEGO Horizon Adventures and experimental new IPs like Returnal. Hopefully, despite the relative failure of PlayStation's recent attempts at putting out new IP and spin-offs, Sony doesn't back down and continues to produce more unique experiences that can help bridge the gap between the larger releases. Taking risks and putting effort into publishing indies and double-A games, or even transformative remasters like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is absolutely the direction that PlayStation needs to be moving in.

Source: PlayStation/YouTube