We recently sat down with some of the team at Guerrilla Games to discuss the latest Sony State of Play, where Horizon Forbidden West’s gameplay was finally unveiled. Fans were pining the presentation would also reveal a release date, but were left more puzzled when no release timeframe was given. This included no longer having the previous “2021” listing. We were also curious. Did this mean the game was slipping out of 2021?

To set the record straight, we asked game director Mathijs de Jonge if Horizon Forbidden West was still on track to release this year, or if things had shifted away from that timeframe.  “The development is on track,” de Jonge tells Game Informer. “The thing is, these are just strange times that we’re all in and we have never finalized and shipped a game under these kinds of circumstances. So we are constantly calculating our schedules and looking at, ‘Okay, where are we?’ and ‘Are there any unforeseen things that might happen?’ We just want to be super confident when we announce the release date, that we’re actually going to hit it. So we just need a little bit more time, and then we can come back with a final release date.” 

So there you have it. Horizon Forbidden West hasn’t been delayed out of 2021, but it’s also not a “sure thing” for launching this year either. Given everything that’s happened with COVID-19 and how studios have had to alter how they make games, it’s understandable that Guerrilla Games is being cautious about listing a specific date until it’s absolutely sure it can deliver on it. At least we know the team at Guerrilla wants to have confidence in the date provided. Hopefully, we’ll know more soon regarding a date. 

For more on Horizon Forbidden West, check out our recent video interview with the developers.