According to VGC, an early build of Horizon Forbidden West was leaked on Monday. Images of what was allegedly the PS4 version of the PlayStation exclusive sequel were leaked into social media platforms. The leaked build was confirmed legitimate by VGC and it apparently contains the entire core content planned for the final game, excluding some art assets. The Twitter post containing leaked images of Horizon Forbidden West was removed a few hours later due to a “report from the copyright holder”. Sony should be well aware of a potential situation similar to The Last of Us 2, where major story spoilers were spread widely online due to a similar build leak.
Horizon Forbidden West is due to release on February 18. The game will be available on both PS4 and PS5. Sony announced the PS5 version of the game in June 2020 and later confirmed the PS4 version in September. In an interview in June, Horizon Forbidden West director Mathijs de Jonge claimed that the studio didn’t need to scale down from its vision of the project due to PS4 constraints. He said that the main difference between the two consoles is on the graphics: “On the PlayStation 5, we can add so much more detail graphically. We can see the tiny hairs on Aloy’s face, for example. You can also see a ton of detail from far away.”
Sony revealed a trailer of Horizon Forbidden West in December 2020, showing off the detailed graphics and some of the machine enemies players will encounter in the game. It also shows some of Aloy’s abilities, including the ability to ride smaller machines, which could provide a faster of traveling especially considering how much exploring players are going to do. There are many exciting things about Horizon Forbidden West. Hopefully, Sony will learn from their previous slip with The Last of Us 2 and make sure all players can start on the same page at the same time.