Despite it being a move that's 'almost tank your only real live-service success of the year' unpopular, Sony has region-locked another game a staggering 10 months after its initial release.
Picked up by a ResetEra user, Horizon Forbidden West, as per SteamDB, is now unable to be purchased in a list of countries—a list that's consistent with its PSN availability, despite the game not requiring an account to play.
This is, understandably, causing a great deal of headscratching—with Sony doubling down on a move that has proven historically unpopular and, from a consumer standpoint, seemingly without a proper objective in mind.
Horizon Forbidden West has already been available for the better part of a year, and it's not as if it'll contribute to PSN user numbers in any meaningful way—so why close the curtains now?
While I've reached out to Sony for comment, and will update this article if I receive a response, I can make some educated guesses.