Horizon Forbidden West PS5 PlayStation 5 1

And this, dear readers, is why companies are so cunningly ambiguous! Early physical sales data for Horizon Forbidden West has arrived in the UK, and with it comes confirmation that “almost a third of [boxed] sales” were on the PlayStation 4. That means roughly 70 per cent of people paid £10 extra to own the PS5 version of the game – despite it offering a free upgrade on Sony’s previous platform, for the lower price of £59.99.

There are no real advantages to buying the £69.99 physical PS5 edition, aside from some minor changes to the labelling on the boxart. Some may argue that the free PS4 to PS5 upgrade process that Sony provides isn’t particularly reliable, annoyingly installing PS4 data when it’s not needed – but this is a firmware flaw that the company really should have solved by now, and £10 still seems like a high price to pay for some potential inconveniences.

Nevertheless, the British public has voted with its wallet: it wanted to pay for the more expensive PS5 version, and PlayStation will be laughing all the way to the bank. Physical sales are actually down 35.4 per cent compared to Horizon Zero Dawn, but that’s hardly surprising when you consider the rapid growth of digital downloads over the past five years. More than half of all PS5 and PS4 games are now purchased through the PS Store worldwide.

The game still sold well enough at retail to become the second-biggest PS5 launch to date in the UK, behind only day one juggernaut Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It’s also the second best-selling game of the year so far in Britain, with only Pokémon Legends: Arceus in front of it. Good results overall, then – and PlayStation chief Jim Ryan will be especially pleased with all those extra tenners he’s managed to snag.

Elsewhere in the Forbidden West, the game is getting review bombed for no real reason at all, and you can check out our Horizon Forbidden West guide through the link. Did you buy the Guerrilla Games sequel yet? What are your thoughts so far? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source twitter.com]