Two-Thirds Of Horizon Forbidden West Players Got Scammed By Sony In The UK

thegamer.com:

Last week’s sales figures reveal that more than two-thirds of Horizon Forbidden West players overpaid. According to the latest GfK figures, originally reported by GameIndustry.biz, the PS5 version of Horizon Forbidden West accounted for 68 percent of the game’s total sales in the UK. This figure doesn’t account for digital and is exclusive to the UK, but it’s a clear indication that Sony’s scheme to bury the free next-gen upgrade has worked exceptionally well.

I take no pleasure in being right about this one. Last week, I tried to warn people that the free upgrade is easy to miss. Other sites including Polygon, Kotaku, and IGN did their best to get the word out too, but unfortunately, the vast majority of players didn’t get the message - nor did they figure it out for themselves, which is exactly what Sony intended to happen.

If you buy the PS4 version of Horizon Forbidden West and put it in your PS5, you can download a free PS5 upgrade. Functionally, there is no difference between the PS4 and PS5 version of the game, yet the PS5 disc costs $10 more. In fact, the cheaper PS4 version is actually more valuable since it works on a PS4 and PS5, while the PS5 disc only works on the latter.

Related: Horizon Forbidden West Does Right By Rost

Of course, if you walk into a GAME or similar retail store you’d have no way to know this. It’s common sense that you’d want to buy the PS5 disc for your PS5, and there’s no sticker on the box or any indication that you’d be overspending by doing so. If the store’s employees know about this - which is unlikely - they have no incentive to steer you towards the PS4 box. The result is millions of PS5 copies of Horizon Forbidden West being sold for absolutely no reason.

While we don’t have the