Last week, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered made its debut…except it was by complete accident. I’m fairly certain ESRB didn’t mean to announce the game via giving it a rating. And yet, that was what happened when they did that. All as an unintended side effect of their rating. Funny world, isn’t it?

Fortunately, it looks like Sony and Guerilla Games are paying attention to that. How else do you explain them officially announcing Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered at this year’s State of Play? Don’t believe me? Then why not check out the announcement trailer below, and see for yourself if this is the remaster for you when it comes out?

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered: Details

You can tell just from the character art there that it’s going to be good.

At PlayStation’s State of Play 2024, Sony and Guerilla Games officially announced the upcoming release of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which included an announcement trailer on YouTube. According to them, this remaster will make its debut on both the PS5 and PC (via Steam and Epic Game Store) on October 31, 2024. Can’t see them in those online stores yet? Well, don’t worry. Preorders for this remaster will open on October 3, 2024 on all platforms, with both physical and digital versions being available on that date.

That’s not all, though! Sony also announces a surprising detail about the pricing of this remaster. Apparently, existing owners of Horizon Zero Dawn will be able to upgrade to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for a mere $9.99. This will include everyone who received the game for free as part of PlayStation’s Play At Home initiative, and those who own physical discs of the game. However, you still need a disc drive for the latter. Thus, if you have the disc drive-less version of the PS5, well, Sony informs you that you’re out of luck there. Although fortunately, you can still purchase the remaster at full price for $49.99. Still kind of pricey, but at least it’s cheaper than the $60-$70 price of AAA games these days.

Bonus: Remaster Details

So what will be in this Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, you might ask? Well, according to Sony in their PlayStation Blog, this remaster will feature “over 10 hours of re-recorded conversation, mocap and countless graphical improvements that bring the game to the same visual fidelity as its critically acclaimed sequel Horizon Forbidden West”. This remastered world will include “stunning new visuals” and 4K graphics, along with an improved fast travel system. As you can see from these still images, they’re not lying about the graphical improvements.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered still image 2.
Seriously, the Embrace looks even more amazing than it already did.

That’s still not all, though! Sony have also improved the character models, animation, and lightning in order to make them more realistic. These improvements to the characters also includes “over 10 hours of re-recorded conversation” and “mocap”, which should hopefully fix the somewhat…awkward animations and slightly stilted dialogue that were in the original game.

There will also be audio improvements, PS5-unique haptic feedback responses, and a new optional accessibility feature that allows you to add “sound and haptic feedback” to better reveal interactables. Which hopefully means that it’s now harder to miss all that loot. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will also come with PS5 Pro support for those few who will purchase it, so…yay?

Tune back in to THS to find out more about Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and other video games when we do.

Source: PlayStation Blog