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PC version of Horizon ZD has been in development for longer than people think, possibly before Death Stranding

Deleted member 10675

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Oct 27, 2017
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Madrid
I was very impressed by Horizon ZD PC version. It has so much PC godlike features that there is no way it has been developed in just a few months, specially coming from a Playstation first party studio and being one of the most technicaly impressive PS4 titles, so I took a look at their SteamDB history: https://steamdb.info/app/1151640/history/

It appeared on Steam almost a year ago.

zTOSWkd.png


For reference, Death Stranding went up on Steam a couple of months later: https://steamdb.info/app/1190460/history/?changeid=7147503

But, how long has the game been in development before being on Steam?

This may be a difficult question to answer, we can't know for sure, but we can speculate looking at the changes made to the Steam database:

The game repository has been updated a total of 262 times at the moment of this writing, compared to Death Stranding's 693 changes in less time.

We cannot guarantee anything, but it could suggest that the game has been in development for longer than most people think, as a lower update frequency to the Steam beta repository could mean a more matured and finished product initially uploaded.

How many Sony first party games could be hidden in SteamDB without anyone knowing? Let's hope to find it soon.
 
Transistor

Transistor

Hollowly Brittle
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,202
Washington, D.C.
I'm still 100% convinced they're using this as an engine pitch. Show how scalable it is between PS and PC and get devs on board.

So glad more people get to play it, though. It's an amazing game.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,728
I wouldn't be shocked if once DS went to Decima and they knew it would be coming to PC, they began work on Horizon on PC to get things up and running so that when PC development for DS began it would be a lot smoother. I have very little doubt that Kojima Productions were the ones to get Decima working on PC first, not that they couldn't.
 
Era Uma Vez

Era Uma Vez

Member
Feb 5, 2020
3,212
Transistor said:
I'm still 100% convinced they're using this as an engine pitch. Show how scalable it is between PS and PC and get devs on board.

So glad more people get to play it, though. It's an amazing game.
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Agreed.
Sony took way too many years to bring their games to PC, so it's not a coincidence that the first Playstation "exclusives" run on the same engine.

I think Guerilla did some dark magic with that Decima engine, and this is the way of Sony showing how good it is, and how versatile it can be.
Also, double win for Sony, if they're able to make a percentage of PC players fall in love with HZD, seeing as the sequel is launching on a new console a year from now.
 
chandoog

chandoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,074
I would imagine they've had some team working on it for a while porting the engine over and whatnot.
 
texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,204
Indonesia
A LOT of Sony timed exclusives are also like this. Games like Nioh, Final Fantasy, and the likes were sitting on Steam from way before they're released on the PS4.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,728
Transistor said:
Why not? It's a hell of an engine apparently. Death Stranding has shown that they're willing to license it out.
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I just realized. Sony was only in contract with Kojima Productions for Death Stranding and nothing more, right?

But AFAIK it's not like Sony is taking away Decima away from them even if their game isn't done in collab with Sony.

So their next game could be fully multiplatform and still use Decima... Which would support your theory of them wanting it to be that.
 
SaberVS7

SaberVS7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,265
HMD said:
So what... Decima will be an Unreal Engine competitor?
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I mean, it wouldn't be the first of its kind out of Sony if they do more 3rd Party licensing beyond just Death Stranding.

PhyreEngine is a decently popular Sony 1st-Party engine that has reasonable amount of 3rd Party multiplat developers using it.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,728
SaberVS7 said:
I mean, it wouldn't be the first of its kind out of Sony if they do more 3rd Party licensing beyond just Death Stranding.

PhyreEngine is a decently popular Sony 1st-Party engine that has reasonable amount of 3rd Party multiplat developers using it.
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28c5bee8e172defe64a2705b60c98500.png


Huh, TIL. I had no idea this engine existed.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,683
The Milky Way
Era Uma Vez said:
Agreed.
Sony took way too many years to bring their games to PC, so it's not a coincidence that the first Playstation "exclusives" run on the same engine.
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Detroit and Predator Hunting Grounds run on Decima?
Transistor said:
I'm still 100% convinced they're using this as an engine pitch. Show how scalable it is between PS and PC and get devs on board.

So glad more people get to play it, though. It's an amazing game.
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If they were using it as an engine pitch then surely they could do better than showing it off at only PS4 level settings running on a RX580.
 
J75

J75

Member
Sep 29, 2018
6,628
I'm sure the fact that the Decima engine is behind both Horizon and DS helped the chances to see both get ported to PC next to each other, but I hope Sony's strategy for these ports aren't just to pitch the engine to developers and show how flexible it is on PC and we see other non Decima Sony titles on PC in the future.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,683
The Milky Way
Kalentan said:
Detroit runs on's on Quantic Dreams own custom engine

Predator Hunting Grounds run on Unreal.

Neither games were made by first party studios
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I know which engines they run on, it was rhetorical.

Regarding your second point, Death Stranding wasn't made by a first party studio either. The poster I quoted said "it's not a coincidence that the first Playstation "exclusives" run on the same engine."
 
Tora

Tora

The Enlightened Wise Ones
Member
Jun 17, 2018
8,641
Uncharted collection getting released on PC before 5 comes out in 2022, I believe
 
Kaiserstarky

Kaiserstarky

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,295
Transistor said:
I'm still 100% convinced they're using this as an engine pitch. Show how scalable it is between PS and PC and get devs on board.

So glad more people get to play it, though. It's an amazing game.
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WillySJ3 said:
That was my first thought when I knew both Horizon and DS were coming to PC. Decima is an awesome engine.
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Last year Herman Hulst said even if i liked to see others studios using the Decima Engine, he prefered to see other studios create their own engines.

Maybe things have changed but it doesn't seem like Guerrilla want to licensing their engine.

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/12/horizon-zero-dawn-god-of-war-collaboration/
 
Winnie

Winnie

Member
Mar 12, 2020
2,629
Didn't Jason Schreier said that more Sony exclusives games were coming to PC? I don't understand why people keep doubting that this isn't a one game thing.
 
DigSCCP

DigSCCP

Banned
Nov 16, 2017
4,201
Transistor said:
Why not? It's a hell of an engine apparently. Death Stranding has shown that they're willing to license it out.
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Yep.
It's also important to note that KP is not the first 3P studio to get their hands on Decima Engine.
Supermassive also worked with it on Until Dawn.
Since the day GG announced a "name" for their engine, with logo and all I've been saying that they would probably license it to more 3P studios. At that time I imagined that would be for PS exclusives, now I guess they are aiming for PS / PC.
Another interesting point about GG engine is that GG has been working on it to be multiplatform since the PS3 era. When KZ Mercenary was released for PS Vita they were already talking about it, at that time the engine - that didn't have a name yet - was already ported to PC.

Here is the interview in 2013, when they already talk about multiplatform support for the engine :

www.eurogamer.net

Inside Killzone: Mercenary

Digital Foundry vs. Guerrilla Cambridge on the tech secrets of mobile's most advanced FPS.
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net
 
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Deleted member 46804

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Aug 17, 2018
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Era Uma Vez said:
Agreed.
Sony took way too many years to bring their games to PC, so it's not a coincidence that the first Playstation "exclusives" run on the same engine.

I think Guerilla did some dark magic with that Decima engine, and this is the way of Sony showing how good it is, and how versatile it can be.
Also, double win for Sony, if they're able to make a percentage of PC players fall in love with HZD, seeing as the sequel is launching on a new console a year from now.
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Nobody on PC is buying a console to play exclusives if they haven't already. This is clearly testing the waters in some capacity for PC support in the future. They are leaving quite a bit of money on the table not doing this.
 

Firefly

Member
Jul 10, 2018
8,640
Not to make it sound trivial but wouldn't most first party engines work well on PC too since PS4 is basically an x86 platform? Porting over the engines might not be as big a hurdle as we believe.
 
ThereAreFourNaan

ThereAreFourNaan

Member
Nov 8, 2017
13,129
Firefly said:
Not to make it sound trivial but wouldn't most first party engines work well on PC too since PS4 is basically an x86 platform? Porting over the engines might not be as big a hurdle as we believe.
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Not trivial as in flick one switch and it instantly and seamlessly works, but it would not be any kind of insurmountable technical challenge, no. I seem to recall reading in the past that Guerilla's engine had an OpenGL renderer (this might have been circa Killzone Mercenaries and Killzone Shadowfall era off the top of my head). This kinda implies that their games might been running internally on PCs even though the games never got PC ports - and the final version of the games didn't ship with that renderer. I don't know enough to really comment on whether or not there are similar situations with their other studios.
 
Birbos

Birbos

Alt Account
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May 15, 2020
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Kalentan said:
I just realized. Sony was only in contract with Kojima Productions for Death Stranding and nothing more, right?

But AFAIK it's not like Sony is taking away Decima away from them even if their game isn't done in collab with Sony.

So their next game could be fully multiplatform and still use Decima... Which would support your theory of them wanting it to be that.
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Presumably kojima would look for an engine that works best for his new game. That's how he chose Decima for Death Stranding.
 

Deleted member 46804

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Era Uma Vez said:
How do they know that if they havent played exclusives yet?
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Because they have access to all of the info we do with YouTube videos, reviews etc. If they were going to buy it, they already would have. This just isn't how it works. Look at the Halo sales on PC. Why weren't those people buying a console for Halo when it was exclusive?
 
Alek

Alek

Games User Researcher
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
8,480
A lot of first party titles are built on PC first. Especially as we come close to next gen consoles, PC builds are used to prep for a next gen release before the hardware was available.

When I was working in industry as user researcher, I was occasionally testing games that are console exclusives, using a PC build.

Obviously I can't say what any of those games are, before anyone asks. But the point is, you'd be surprised. There are a lot of games that have fully functioning PC builds that are just sat in storage somewhere, never to be released because it doesn't fit with the brand strategy.
 
jerfdr

jerfdr

Member
Dec 14, 2017
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Era Uma Vez said:
How do they know that if they havent played exclusives yet?
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I don't even have a TV in my household, and not planning to get one, ever. And I'm not going to plug a console to the monitor at my desk. So yeah, I know that I'm not getting any consoles whatsoever, no matter how good the exclusives are. I bet there are quite a few people like me.

P.S. I've just pre-ordered H:ZD on Steam. This is a win-win scenario for everyone. Sony got my money, which they wouldn't ever see if H:ZD stayed a PS exclusive, and I'm getting to play this game.
 
Is_that_my_horse

Is_that_my_horse

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May 28, 2020
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Yeah the reveal trailer for the PC features shows they've def been working their butts off to get this right. Super supper impressive to see.
 
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