With the PS5 games showcase looming on the horizon, talk of what games we’ll be seeing at the show is heating up by the second, and while third party heavy hitters are, of course, going to be major attractions, there’s a lot of focus on first party PS5 exclusives that Sony will be showing off. Interestingly enough, one of these might be a sequel to Guerrilla Games’ 2017 open world action RPG, Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Dutch composer Joris de Man, who has been working with Guerrilla for a long time and also composed the OST of Horizon: Zero Dawn, recently took to Twitter and dropped what seems like a tease for an announcement at the show (you can view his tweet below).

While one tweet is by no means concrete evidence of a forthcoming announcement, recent developments have lent credibility to that notion. Reports recently emerged that Sony have greenlit two sequels to Horizon: Zero Dawn, and that Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 – which is reportedly massive in scope – is in the works, and is poised to have “industry benchmark graphics.” There’s also the fact that with over three years having passed since the first game’s release, the timing seems right for a sequel’s announcement.

Of course, this is all just speculation for now. We’ll know how spot-on it turns out to be when the PS5 showcase streams at 1 PM Pacific Time later today.

Other games rumoured to be at the event are the next Gran Turismo, a Bloodborne remaster and Demon’s Souls remake, Resident Evil 8 and a new Silent Hill, Housemarque’s next game, and more. The next game from Dead Space’s writer will also be revealed at the show.

Excited! Wonder what they will be showing today…..:) https://t.co/FPxx7tjh8y

— Joris de Man – *screaming in a pillow* (@jorisdemanmusic) June 11, 2020

Guerrilla Games has been rumored to be working on a sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, its breakout open world action RPG for PS4 (and soon, PC). Along with the next game rumored to have co-op, Sony has apparently green-lit a trilogy for development. So it’s perhaps no surprise that “industry-benchmark graphics” are part of the package.

A job listing on Guerrilla Games website for a Technical Vegetation Artist was recently discovered by RespawnFirst’s Sikandar Mahmood on Twitter. It noted that the developer had “four teams dedicated to creating the stunning environments of Horizon” (note the lack of “Zero Dawn” for the name). The listing goes on to state that “our world dressing teams can deliver our immersive world with industry-benchmark graphics.”

Another more recent listing for Principal Animator for Living World has some other details. It talks about the Living World team and how various “group of designers, programmers, animators and artists that work tightly together to bring our villages, cities, cultures and civilization to life.” This sounds vaguely Horizon-esque, if nothing else.

We’ll have to wait for more details in the meantime but you can be sure that Horizon Zero Dawn 2 or whatever it ends up being called will release on PS5. The console is currently slated for release this holiday season.

https://twitter.com/SikandrMahmood/status/1258235684047007744

That Sony and Guerrilla Games at some point will release a sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn is something that most have been assuming for some time now, and multiple job listings posted by Guerrilla Games over the past few months have suggested that work on a sequel is underway. Now, a report by VGC sheds light on potential new details on the unannounced game.

Allegedly, according to multiple sources, Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 is indeed in development- in fact, Sony have apparently greenlit plans for a full trilogy. Guerrilla had supposedly intended for Horizon to be a series from the get-go (which is apparent in how the first game ends), and following the success of the first game, a sequel was greenlit by Sony.

As per the report, Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 started production soon after the launch of the first game. It was originally planned as a PS4 title, but has since been pushed back as a PS5 release. Allegedly, the sequel is going to be “gigantic” in scope, with a much bigger world than its predecessor, and much more freedom for exploration.

One big new feature that the report claims the sequel will have is co-op, which is something that both Guerrilla Games and Sony have been keen on for a while, and even planned on including in the first game for a while. It’s unclear if co-op will be featured in Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 as a separate mode, or if it will be integrated into the campaign itself. The report also states that Guerrilla at one point had plans to release an individual co-op preview, save data for which would later carry over into the full release, though it’s unknown if those plans are still in place.

A sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn hasn’t yet been announced by Sony, but recent reports have suggested that they’ll be revealing the PS5 in full next month, so it’s possible that the game – if these reports are indeed accurate – might be announced soon.

Meanwhile, Horizon: Zero Dawn is also scheduled to launch on PC this Summer.

Even though Sony have not officially announced it yet, given how critically and commercially successful Horizon: Zero Dawn was, it’s something of a give that a sequel is currently in the works and will be releasing in the foreseeable future. Multiple job listings over the past year have pointed to the same, and now we have another job listing that does the same.

The listing in question is for the position of Lead Creature Animator over on Guerrilla Games’ official website. In the job ads, there are mentions of “engaging creatures for our compelling gameplay” and “setting the bar as high as possible in terms of aesthetic and in-game requirements for the creature animation quality.” Guerrilla also mentions that it’s looking to “create real-time animalistic movement with a focus on quality and realism.”

Of course, the listing itself doesn’t explicitly mention Horizon: Zero Dawn or. sequel, but given the level of fidelity that was in display in the way the robotic dinosaurs of the first game were animated, it isn’t much of a stretch to assume that Guerrilla Games will be looking to up the ante with a sequel.

Before that, we do have more Horizon stuff coming up this year, with Horizon: Zero Dawn launching for PC this Summer.

It is to no one’s surprise that a sequel to the critically beloved and commercially successful Horizon: Zero Dawn is in development. A sequel hasn’t been officially announced yet, but given the success of the first game, and other reports suggesting the same, it’s pretty much an inevitability.

Now, another job ad posted by Guerrilla Games is hinting at a sequel to the open world title once again. The job ad, looking for a Technical Vegetation Artist, reads, “Within Guerrilla, we have four teams dedicated to creating the stunning environments of Horizon. One team focuses on the creation of lush and stunning vegetation. We build these 3D models from scratch, so our world dressing teams can deliver our immersive world with industry-benchmark graphics.”

If you’ve played Horizon, you’ll remember that its open world environments were dense with heavy forestry and vegetation, in line with its overgrown post-post-apocalypse motif, so it’s pretty fitting that that’s something Guerrilla is doubling down on. Sure, the job ad doesn’t explicitly mention a Horizon sequel, but the dots here are easy to connect.

The only question is when the game will be announced, and when it will be out. A release as a launch title for the PS5 doesn’t seem out of the question. The PS5 is due out in Holiday of 2020, and by that time, Horizon: Zero Dawn will be over three years old- which seems like ample time for Guerrilla to wrap up a sequel. Then again, this is just speculation, so you never know.

Of the many first party titles Sony has released this generation, Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn is arguably the most interesting. It’s a completely new IP and marks a significant departure from the studio’s bread-and-butter of first person shooters. So after selling 10 million units worldwide as of February 2019, the question is: where’s the sequel?

It might not be far off, according to actress Janina Gavankar. Known for the role of Tatai in the first game’s DLC and playing Iden Versio in Star Wars Battlefront 2, Gavankar was present at the recent Star Wars Celebration. As per a Reddit thread by ninjyte, Gavankar met a fan cosplaying as Iden and discussed Horizon: Zero Dawn, noting, “It’s incredible. Wait till you see the sequel. You’re gonna die. I know some secrets! You’re gonna die.” The original Twitch clip was deleted, but you can see the mirror here.

The potential for Horizon: Zero Dawn to become a major franchise for Sony has never been in doubt. Couple that with the somewhat cliffhanger-ish ending of the first game and it was obvious that we hadn’t seen the last of Aloy. Take this with some grain of salt though, especially since Guerrilla Games hasn’t so much as teased the sequel, but Gavankar does have some credibility.

Guerrilla Games is also hiring for an online-focused title at present, so stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

We recently reported on how Guerrilla Games is undergoing massive expansions and is hiring a lot more people so as to release games more quickly. It looks like the next game that the company is working on may be an online game, or will come with an online component at the very least.

This is as per a job listing by the company, which is for  a UI programmer. In the job listing, it’s interesting to note that it is mentioned that the UI programmer will be working on an “epic open world game”, but the requirements also ask for experience in shipping network enabled code and working with online games.

The “epic open world game” part seems to suggest a Horizon sequel, so could it be a Horizon game with online elements? Perhaps the job listing is possibly to work on a game directed by Game Director Simon Larouche, since he is currently working on an unannounced title (as pointed out by a user on ResetERA). Larouche has previously worked on multiplayer experiences before, so it’s certainly possible that Guerrilla Games is moving in that direction. As of now, we’ll just have to wait and see what Guerrilla Games has planned for the future.

What do you think they’re working on? Let us know in the comments.

Horizon: Zero Dawn came out almost two months ago, and people are still gushing over it and how wonderful an experience it turned out to be. The game received a great deal of praise, and a vast majority of it was directed as things such as the unexpectedly incredible plot and the excellent design of the machines in the game.

People are already thinking about a sequel, understandably, and Guerrilla says that if there were to be a Horizon: Zero Dawn 2, it would have to be as awesome as its predecessor in those areas, if not more. “We’ve been absolutely humbled by the players’ response to the story and their emotional connection to Aloy,” said Horizon’s Narrative Director John Gonzalez. “Should a sequel happen, our number one goal would be to respect that connection by doing our utmost to create a story that resonates just as deeply.”

“We feel duty-bound to honor the time that players have invested into Horizon: Zero Dawn,” he continued. “The last thing we want to do is disappoint the folks who have given the game such a passionate support.” Art Director Jan-Bart van Beek, however, feels that there’s other areas the sequel needs to keep building on as well. Zero Dawn was as good as it was because of the excellent design and variety of the machines in the game, and it was because of these machines that the game’s combat felt as tense and thrilling as it did. van Beek feels the sequel needs to have more new machines.

“More machines,” he said simply. “They are a lot of fun to design, build, animate, and play with. I wish we could have done a hundred. But reality is a harsh mistress; it doesn’t allow you to make hundreds of machines.”

What would you like to see in a potential sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn? Tell us in your comments below.

Thanks, Wccftech!