Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered launches tomorrow: Nixxes details the collaboration that upgraded Aloy’s first adventure

We’re excited to launch Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered on PS5 and PC* tomorrow. We can’t wait for you to discover the visual enhancements and new features that take full advantage of the PS5 and compatible PCs. We also look forward to seeing all of your Photo Mode creations, whether you are revisiting your favorite locations and characters, or discovering the world of Horizon for the first time.

A lot of love and effort went into the making of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. In a previous blog, developers talked extensively about various enhancements that Nixxes and Guerrilla collaborated on. Today I’d like to introduce you to Linda Burgers, Principal Producer at Nixxes, to share more about how this project came to be:

“Before we began working on Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, we set out to assess what was possible. At the time, Horizon Forbidden West had been announced, but was still in development. Guerrilla gave us the privilege of getting an early look at the sequel. The stunning visuals and overall quality we saw in Horizon Forbidden West proved to be a huge opportunity for an enhanced version of Horizon Zero Dawn.

From terrain, foliage, density, the set dressing in settlements, clouds, lighting and facial animation, to the overall cinematic quality, we saw a huge delta when we made comparisons.

In addition, we went back to the original concept art of Horizon Zero Dawn, to get a sense of the original intent. Especially the density of foliage stood out. Based on what we saw in the concept art, Nixxes Art Director Oscar Stegehuis started making paint-overs of Horizon Zero Dawn screenshots, to outline and emphasize the opportunities and the vision that was forming for the remaster.

The shared vision of Nixxes and Guerrilla was not to just upgrade the existing world of Horizon Zero Dawn, but to overhaul the visuals to match those of Horizon Forbidden West, without losing the original intent and identity of the first game. To achieve this, we were in constant contact with the art direction, animation, and lighting teams at Guerrilla. Since the studios’ offices in Amsterdam and Utrecht are close to each other, we had people from Guerrilla visit on a regular basis to give direction in person and help solve complex problems with various aspects of the production.

With the incredible efforts, talent, and dedication of the teams at Nixxes and Guerrilla, and the additional support from our co-developers at Weaseltron and Stellar Entertainment, I believe we have succeeded in making this a reality.

The talented software developers from Weaseltron have been instrumental to the project’s infrastructure, technical art wizardry, rendering pipelines, remaster tools and the bulk of the work on the PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

A group of skilled artists from Stellar Entertainment worked with us on remastering the ambience, lighting, clouds, and landscape assets. Their engineers also brought over many of the accessibility features from Horizon Forbidden West into the remaster.

I could not be more proud of the entire team! The talent and dedication that everyone put into this project made our shared vision a reality.“

– Linda Burgers, Principal Producer, Nixxes

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered launches on PlayStation 5 on October 31 at midnight local time. For release timing on PC, check out the PC Launch Map below.

Existing owners of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition can upgrade to the digital version of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for $9.99. Check out the announcement PS Blog post for all the upgrade details.

New fans can purchase the game for $49.99 on PlayStation Store, Steam, or Epic Games Store. For PlayStation 5, a physical version is also available. 

* Account for PlayStation Network required on PC.