Today, Guerrilla Games celebrated the second anniversary of their most recent hit release, Horizon: Zero Dawn. To celebrate, the studio’s managing director Herman Hulst took to the PlayStation Blog to announce that Horizon: Zero Dawn has sold “well over” ten million copies worldwide since its release in 2017 among other behind the scenes tidbits about the game. In the post on the blog, Hulst reminisced on the launch of the game before making the sales announcement. Hulst went on to state:
The idea that we were able to bring Aloy’s journey to so many players is astounding. We’ve been deeply moved by the enormous amount of fan creations you’ve posted online, as well as the heartfelt letters you’ve sent sharing your favorite moments from Aloy’s journey.
Following this, the post featured multiple fan artistic creations for the game. Then, Hulst shared some behind the scenes facts about the game. He mentioned the studio used the Intruder pilot from Killzone 3 as an early in-game model for the game’s protagonist, Aloy, before a final in-game model was finished, and also mentioned that Aloy is modeled after Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra.
Hulst went to show how the Thunderjaw was the first machine designed for the game, and the prototype model looked “like a child’s toy made from plastic bricks.” Hulst then stated that the studio snuck an Easter egg for the game in 2013’s Killzone Shadow Fall. Elsewhere, Hulst talked about the game’s sound design including narrowing over 750 bird sound recordings to just 30, the Watcher machine having Chihuahua barks mixed into its sounds, and how the studio’s teams spoke in gibberish for some background crowd noises in the game.
The early “Toy” Thunderjaw prototype
With the massive success that Horizon: Zero Dawn has achieved, it’s very likely we’ll see an inevitable sequel. Guerilla Games has already branched out with the IP with a board game based on the game in the works. Elsewhere, the game has had crossovers with other titles including last year with Monster Hunter World and this year with Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Recently, Guerrilla Games also expanded their staff, and brought in the director of Rainbow Six: Siege, Simon Larouche.