Horizon Forbidden West: Audience and Industry

Audience and Industry

Audience

Look at this YouGov blog on the console gaming audience and answer the following questions:

1) What statistics can you find for the number of male / female players for the major consoles?

 PlayStation 5 (68% male; 29% female) and Xbox Series X|S (68% vs. 32%) have the highest proportion of male compared to female gamers.

2) What is the difference between 'hardcore' and 'casual' gamers - and which do you think would play Horizon Forbidden West?

• the “hardcore” – those who say they take video games seriously, or play competitively – are a minority, and one with the highest representation on the PS5 (19%) and Xbox Series X|S (20%).

• Casual gamers are most common on the Nintendo Switch (45%), and the PC, where half of players identify as casual (51%).

3) What are the different reasons YouGov researched for why players play games? Which of these would apply to Horizon Forbidden West?

Most gamers across every system say relaxing and winding down is a key motivation for playing video games – but especially for PC (77%) and Switch (78%) gamers compared to Xbox (56%) and PS5 (63%). This group are also more likely to say they play games “to pass the time” or “to escape from reality for a while”. Switch gamers are also especially likely to be creatively motivated: three in ten say they play games to “make a world of their own” (29%), next to a quarter of PC gamers (26%) and a fifth of PS5 (21%) and Xbox gamers (22%).

For their part, PS5 and Xbox gamers are more likely to say they play video games for social purposes: around a quarter of the former (24%) and nearly three in ten of the latter (28%) say they play video games “to interact with gamers from around the world”, next to just 16% of both Switch gamers and PC gamers. The greater multiplayer emphases of these consoles next to the Switch may partially account for this.

Look at the PlayStation website page for Horizon Forbidden West. Complete the following tasks: 

1) How is the game promoted to an audience?

Game overview - 

Explore distant lands, fight bigger and more awe-inspiring machines, and encounter astonishing new tribes as you return to the far-future, post-apocalyptic world of Horizon.

The land is dying. Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity, while fearsome new machines prowl their borders. Life on Earth is hurtling towards another extinction, and no one knows why.

It's up to Aloy to uncover the secrets behind these threats and restore order and balance to the world. Along the way, she must reunite with old friends, forge alliances with warring new factions and unravel the legacy of the ancient past – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly undefeatable new enemy.

2) What are the key features for the game listed on the site?

• Brave an expansive open world

• A majestic frontier

• Confront new dangers

• Unravel startling mysteries

3) What information does the website offer players about the game world and characters? Give a few examples.

The follow up to guerrilla's breakout sci fiction hit Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West expands upon nearly every facet of the original's winning formula, delivering a spectacular open world adventure that marries breath taking visuals, a high concept narrative and intense varied combat.

4) What spin-offs and additional content are available as part of the Horizon franchise?  

• Complete edition

• Standard edition

5) Applying Henry Jenkins's work on fandom, what aspects of the website (you may need to scroll down) encourage fan activity and engagement with online Horizon communities?  

• Horizon Forbidden West cosplay guides

• Horizon Forbidden West papercraft guides

Read this Wired feature on Horizon Forbidden West's open world design. Answer the following questions: 

1) Why did the writer enjoy Horizon Forbidden West?

THERE is nothing more exciting—or daunting—than an open-world video game. Fire one up and you’re quickly faced with enough real estate to lose hours of your life happily exploring or an abyss in which to get frustratingly lost and bored. The world map can be either friend or foe, but it’s often hard to tell at the onset which game worlds are going to be welcoming and enticing and which are going to be an unfun time suck.

2) How is Horizon Forbidden West structured for players when they first start the game?

I’m still eager to spend time in its deliciously crafted world. Guerrilla Games’ follow-up to Horizon Zero Dawn is the kind of game that stays on its rails for the first five to 10 hours, pulling you into the narrative before releasing you to explore. It creates structure and a sense of the goals for gameplay—the ideal introduction to a game built around wide-open spaces.

3) Why does the writer feel HFW created a more successful open world game than The Witcher 3?

This kind of action stands in stark contrast to an open-world game like The Witcher 3, which, while expansive, is also just too overwhelming. A few days into the game, I threw down my controller in frustration when I arrived at a massive city and realized it would take hours to traverse all of its streets, talk to all of its NPCs, and finish the quests. I still enjoyed the game somewhat, but it failed to lure me in the way Horizon Forbidden West did.

Industries

Industry research

1) What studios are part of Sony PlayStation Studios?

• Team Asobi

• Bend Studio

• Buepoint Games

• Firesprite

• Firewalk Studios

• Guerrilla Games

• Haven Studios

• Housemarque

• Insomaniac Games

• London Studios

• Media Molecule

• Naughty Dog

• Nixxes

• Polyphony Digital

• San Diego Studio

• Santa Monica Studio

• Sucker Punch

• Valkyrie Entertainment

2) What notable games have they produced? 

Guerrilla Games - Horizon Forbidden West

3) Now research Guerrilla Games. Look at the 'Explore' page in particular. Who owns Guerrilla Games and how does it reflect the modern videogames industry? 

 A wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. 

4) Choose one of the 'Guerrilla Spotlight' features and write three things you learn about the videogames industry and/or Guerrilla Games from the interview.

• spend some time investigating existing tools to see what I can build out of that

• write proposals to leads and teams to see what route to take

•  talk about stuff we share interest in and we often do team outings. 

Read this USA Today feature on Guerrilla Games. Answer the following questions: 

1) Which three companies merged to become Guerrilla Games?

 Formed by Orange Games, Digital Infinity, and Formula Game Development. 

2) What other games and franchises were created by Guerrilla Games?

Nijmegen Adventure, by Wim Couwenberg, released in 1980 

3) How did Guerrilla maximise the Killzone franchise? 

 Killzone was earmarked as a Sony-published title, Shellshock was made under Eidos’ stewardship. One took the FPS format to a new, whole cloth sci-fi setting, while the other gathered together all of pop culture’s favorite Vietnam War movie tropes and threw them into a shooter. In the end, neither game hit the mark with critics. Shellshock was criticized for its sensationalist depiction of the conflict and slipped out of public consciousness fairly soon after it arrived. Killzone, on the other hand, faced criticism more technical in nature. Graphics glitches, bugs and performance issues put a hurdle between players and an enjoyable, challenging and dark shooter. 

4) What did Sony sign with Guerrilla in 2004? 

2004 onwards all the titles Guerrilla developed would appear only on PlayStation consoles. 

5) How is Horizon Forbidden West described in the article and what is the next stage for the franchise?  

Horizon, on the other hand, has a different atmosphere entirely. It’s a world bearing the scars of a mysterious lost civilization, a far future that looks like a distant past, and it’s just about hospitable that you can exhale and take in the scenery now and then. This was never the case in Killzone. Nor were the latter’s characters especially memorable, despite some convoluted double-crossings and a series-long penchant for surprise protagonist killings that would have made the Call of Duty writers’ room proud. Aloy’s journey through Horizon showed a different side to Guerrilla – soft-touch storytellers and exceptional world-builders, as well as masters of squeezing the most out of PlayStation hardware and making a headshot feel just right.

Horizon: Forbidden West will be only the studio’s eighth game as Guerrilla Games, and only its third outside the Killzone franchise. Its next announced project, a VR title co-developed with Firesprite called Horizon: Call of the Mountain, is in many ways the perfect example of what the studio’s about: a deepening of a universe it created itself, making fortuitous use of a Sony hardware platform. Meanwhile, anyone waiting for that Shellshock sequel might have to be patient.

Regulation and PEGI

1) What is HFW's PEGI rating and what age rating do you feel would be appropriate? Why?

Rated PEGI 16

I would have yo agree with the age rating because this rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. The use of bad language in games with a PEGI 16 rating can be more extreme, while games of chance, and the use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs can also be present

2) Why is regulating videogames difficult in the digital age?

• With the rise of digital platforms, games can be easily distributed online without physical copies. This makes it harder to monitor and control the distribution of games compared to traditional methods.

• The gaming industry has diverse monetization models, including free-to-play with in-game purchases, subscription services, and traditional one-time purchases. Regulating these models to protect consumers and prevent exploitative practices requires adapting to new business models.

3) Are attitudes towards media content and regulation changing as a result of the internet? Explain your answer.

• Diversity of Platforms:

1. The rise of various online platforms for content distribution, including social media, streaming services, and user-generated content sites, has diversified the landscape. This diversity poses challenges for regulators trying to monitor and control content across different platforms.

2. 
   

• Real-Time Interaction:

1. Social media and live streaming have introduced real-time interaction, making it difficult to regulate content before it reaches an audience. This challenges traditional regulatory models that relied on pre-approval processes.

2. 
   

• Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity:

1. The internet has facilitated the sharing of content across diverse cultures and perspectives. This has led to a greater awareness of cultural nuances and sensitivities, influencing discussions around the need for more culturally informed and inclusive regulations.