Horizon Forbidden West team have “thousands and thousands” of sequel ideas

The creators paid tribute to Lance Reddick at the BAFTA Games Awards.

By Rob Leane

Published: Friday, 31 March 2023 at 12:00 am

The team from Guerrilla Games were out in force at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, braving the blustery conditions on London’s Southbank to celebrate Horizon Forbidden West.

Their latest AAA open-world adventure was up for six awards. On the red carpet before the ceremony, Studio Director and Executive Producer Angie Smets said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to be here tonight, and it’s such an honour to be nominated with all those amazing games.”

As for the recent passing of one of the Horizon franchise’s stars, Lance Reddick, Smets told RadioTimes.com: “It’s incredibly sad news. I think Lance was really able to bring Sylens our in-game character to life. And he was so loved by our community. It’s still really a shock to all of us. He was still so young. It’s been super sad to see him go at such a young age.”

Actress Alison Jaye, who plays Alva in the Horizon series, also joined the tributes to Reddick. Jaye told us that she “never got to work with him directly” but has heard “the legends and the wonderful stories”.

Jaye added: “It was amazing, even in his passing to watch the massive community that came out around him. He touched so many people. I just wish I got to… it’s wild to be in a game where you are with someone like him, but we’ve never met, so yeah, hopefully we could bring something home for him.”

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Alison Jaye at the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards.
Shane Anthony Sinclair/BAFTA/Getty Images

The team did indeed go on to take home one gong, the Technical Achievement award. And all this comes at a time where the developers at Guerrilla are hard at work on Horizon Forbidden West’s DLC expansion, Burning Shores, which is due to arrive on 19th April.

Studio Director and Art Director Jan-Bart van Beek said on the DLC: “We’re very excited about that. We’re taking that one to Los Angeles, which has always been a place that we wanted Aloy to go to. It’s the home of movies, it’s the home of entertainment, so the DLC will also see a play on that. And we’re very excited for the players to go there.”

Assuming that there will be a chance to come back for a Horizon Zero Dawn 3, do the developers have other pins stuck in the map of places they’d like Aloy to visit? After laughing at the question, van Beek replied: “Thousands and thousands, but we’re not going to tell them right now!”

And with the recent launch of Horizon Call of the Mountain, a spin-off for PSVR 2 that allowed you to play as a prisoner named Ryas instead of the usual hero Aloy, it feels like the franchise has opened up the possibility of seeing the Horizon world through multiple perspectives.

On that development, van Beek said: “We’ve always figured that Horizon is a great universe to explore from many different perspectives. So we’ve have Aloy’s perspective, of course, but maybe we will also show other perspectives and other experiences in the world.”

And what about Alison Jaye? Does the Alva actress know yet where the series could be heading? “I kind of do,” she teased. “All things that I cannot obviously share. But I’m really glad that my character Alva became so beloved that hopefully she’ll be back for more, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

As and when the future of the Horizon franchise comes into focus, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.