Guerrilla Games appears to have announced a sequel to Horizon: Forbidden West in a post on its own website.
In a morsel of news perhaps best filed under the category, “not surprising, but quite interesting all the same”, Guerrilla Games appears confirm that a sequel to Horizon: Forbidden West is on the way.
The minor revelation was tucked away in a post on the developer’s own website. As spotted by Eurogamer, the post is a thank you note to Angie Smets, the outgoing studio director and executive producer who’s heading to a new role at PlayStation Studios. Towards the end, the message reads:
“We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy’s next adventure and our exciting online project. Michiel van der Leeuw (Technical Director) will be focusing on the future technology and strategy for the Decima engine.”
Note the mention of “Aloy’s next adventure” – a clear reference to a sequel of some sort. Note, too, that this is in addition to the multiplayer Horizon spin-off already confirmed by Guerrilla in late 2022.
Smets’ departure from Guerrilla – following a 20 year stint that stretches right back to the original Killzone – has prompted a management reshuffle at the studio. Joel Eschler and Hella Schmidt will join Jan-Bart van Beek as studio directors, while Michiel van der Leeuw will concentrate on developing Decima – Guerrilla’s proprietary engine that drove Horizon: Forbidden West and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding.
In a LinkedIn post spotted by Push Square, van der Leeuw writes that he and his team have “crafted a studio roadmap and future direction for our Decima Engine [that is] so ambitious.”
Van der Leeuw is also looking for a handful of programmers and other technical minds to work on tools, infrastructure and cinematic tech at the Amsterdam-based studio.
There was a five year gap between the release of Horizon: Zero Dawn and its sequel, Forbidden West – a cycle partly due to the creation of the Decima engine. While we can only hope that the gap between Forbidden West and the third game in the series isn’t quite so wide, there’s at least its Burning Shores DLC to keep us going for a while longer.
