Zero Dawn PC Becomes Inaccessible For Many With Remaster on the Way

PlayStation announced Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered at their recent State of Play, with a surprisingly fast release date. October 31st is right around the corner, and yesterday Zero Dawn Remastered became available for pre-order on PC stores and PS5. There’s also the appreciated benefit of any owners of the original Horizon Zero Dawn being able to only pay $10 to obtain the remastered. Of course, owners of the original Zero Dawn on PC just became a rare breed.

Along with making Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered available for pre-order, PlayStation delisted Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition – the default version for the PC port – from Steam and Epic Games Store. This move is motivated by PlayStation’s push for its PSN requirement; Zero Dawn was released on PC in 2020, long before the PSN requirement came into play. Now, any PC players who want to play Horizon: Zero Dawn must purchase the remastered, as well as be lucky enough to live in a country that allows PSN.

PlayStation Has Lost the Plot

The reasoning for PlayStation’s requirement of a PSN account for single-player games like Horizon Zero Dawn continues to perplex players. It’s going as far as to make a previously nearly universally accessible game inaccessible in over 100 countries is quite the choice, and not one with players in mind. PSN is the PlayStation Network, meant for PlayStation players so they can log in to their console, have a gaming profile, and access online content. For PC players, this is wholly unnecessary; that doesn’t mean PlayStation is going to listen to their complaints, though.

PlayStation has already seen the aftermath of this decision. Helldivers 2 achieved commercial and critical success earlier this year, before suffering a review-bombing like no other when PlayStation implemented the PSN requirement post-launch. The recent release of God of War Ragnarök on PC has also seen some angry reviews directed solely at this requirement. Of course, some people feel players are overreacting, that logging in to a free, third-party network to play a game isn’t a big deal. The big deal really comes from the fact that that network isn’t available in over 100 countries, making gaming inaccessible to millions due to where they live.

Horizon: Zero Dawn Should Remain Available Regardless of the PSN Requirement

Outside technological advancement that eventually leaves original games behind, remasters just about never mean the end to the original. Horizon Zero Dawn is still available physically and digitally for PlayStation – although, it has seen a price increase so that players can’t take advantage of the $10 upgrade cost – but for PC players, it’s now lost media. PlayStation is now banking on Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered to live up to its original, but that’s not always a guarantee. The Life is Strange: Remastered Collection is a buggy mess that has never been fully patched and Grand Theft Auto: Definitive Edition is a laughable disaster; there’s plenty of evidence that a remaster of a successful game does not always equate to the same success.

Now, PC players have to hope that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a seamless upgrade, bug-free, providing the same experience they would have gotten with the original, just with upgrades for the modern age. If it doesn’t deliver, they have to accept they’ll never get to experience this phenomenal game for what it was or shell out the money for a PS4 to play the original. Delisting a game that was released a mere four years ago just continues to reveal the rot that’s infecting the gaming industry, all in favor of numbers and profit over player experience.

Did PlayStation Just Set Itself Up For Failure?

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered is no doubt going to get the sales PlayStation hopes for, especially with the upgrade option. However, there will be a noticeable number of players refusing to purchase due to the PSN requirement. It’s been happening with all of their PC ports since they implemented the policy, players on Steam refunding because of their frustration with the requirement, or simply refusing to purchase out of spite. Not only that, but the PSN requirement has proven to be a magnet for review-bombing. God of War: Ragnarok has proven to be a stellar PC port, but still has a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam because of the PSN requirement.

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered now has a lot more expectations to live up to. If it ended up being a bad remaster, players could have just returned to the original. Now, that’s only true for PC players who were lucky enough to purchase the original. The one remaining option for PC players to snag the original is GOG, the DRM-free digital games store. That is unless PlayStation cuts that listing down at the knees. The gaming industry needs a cleansing wash; making multiple games inaccessible for players in over 100 countries, as well as taking away their previous access to a game, is cruel. The bottom line shouldn’t be more important to player experience, and at this point, enough betrayal from corporations will simply push players further and further away; the review-bombing and refusal to purchase on principle is already evidence of this.