TheHorizonfranchise has a bad habit of releasing at the wrong time. Back whenHorizon Zero Dawnwas released in 2017, it was quicklyovershadowed byThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildand other big games, and whenHorizon Forbidden West wasreleased last year,Elden Ringwas right there to greet it. It looks as though the same might be about to happen withHorizon Forbbiden West: Burning Shores.
Sony and Guerrilla Games have just announced thatHorizon Forbidden West: BurningShoreswill be released on June 21, 2025, putting it dangerously close to one of the most anticipated games of the year,Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which is currently set to release just a week later. ButHorizon Forbidden West: Burning Shoreshas one intriguing trick up its sleeve that’s sure to get fans to drop the cash early.
RELATED:Netflix’s Horizon Show May Contend with the Same Ridiculous Issue As Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC Has a Pre-Order Bonus
There are a number of slightly surprising takeaways from Sony and Guerrila’s recentHorizon Forbidden West: Burning Shoresannouncement. The first is that the highly-anticipated DLC will only cost fans $19.99. Generally speaking, this is quite a bit less than some fans had expected, with a lot of modern-day DLC expansions coming in at around the $30-40 mark. Instead,Horizon Forbidden West’sBurning ShoresDLC is actually much closer to Sony’s other first-party expansions, such asGhost of Tsushima’sIki IslandDLC, andMarvel’s Spider-Man’sCity That Never Sleepsexpansion. The second big surprise is thatBurning Shoresincludes a pre-order bonus.
Pre-order bonuses became a staple of the video game industry about a decade and a bit ago. While pre-order bonuses had cropped up for big titles every now and then, they really came to the forefront of the industry in the late 2000s and early 2010s, where players would be offered some unique digital goods like an exclusive in-game skin, or very occasionally, some kind of physical goody like a poster or artbook.Pre-order bonusesnow exist for many games, but while that’s commonplace, what isn’t so common to see is a pre-order bonus for a DLC.
If fanspre-orderHorizon Forbidden West’sBurning ShoresDLC, they’ll receive a unique skin for both Aloy and her bow. Named the Blacktide Dye Outfit and Blacktide Sharpshot Bow respectively, these pre-order bonuses can be claimed as soon as players start theBurning ShoresDLC, by talking with the first vendor they meet. As pre-order bonuses go, this cosmetic combination is a pretty standard affair, giving Aloy a sleek black and yellow outfit and a cool new futuristic helmet.
Offering a pre-order bonus for a DLC isn’t seen too often in the current gaming landscape, though another huge title has also recently announced it’s offering a pre-order bonus for its own set of expansions later this year. Just a few weeks ago,Pokemon Scarlet and Violetannounced its own DLC expansion pass. And, if players pre-ordered the pass, then they’d receive a Hisuian Zoroark that otherwise can’t be obtained through normal gameplay.
While it doesn’t necessarily indicate the start of a new trend in gaming, it is very interesting that two of the biggest DLCs of the year are both offering fans digital bonuses if they pre-order the expansions. After all, this approach to DLC does make a lot of sense. DLC expansions are no longer just a small set of missions that can be pushed out in a week or two, but are instead often fully-fledged campaigns in their own right, usually adding entire new regions and open-world areas to the game. It makes sense that developers and publishers would want to convince as many players as possible to capitalize on the release’s hype.
Horizon Forbidden Westis available on PS4 and PS5, and the Burning ShoresDLC is scheduled to release on April 19 on PS5.
MORE:Can Horizon Call of the Mountain’s Protagonist Ryas Play a Role in Forbidden West’s Sequel?
