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Horizon Zero Dawn remaster continues the series' curse as Dragon Age and Monster Hunter Wilds' beta soak up all the chatter

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered, released on the same day as Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Monster Hunter Wilds beta, faces a challenging launch amidst competition from major RPG titles, highlighting the potential 'Horizon curse' of releasing alongside other popular games.

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The Horizon curse began life as an unfunny joke, then it became an entire internet meme, then it seemed like incredibly bad luck, and evidence of its actual existence now seems irrefutable as it's now going up against Dragon Age and a last-minute Monster Hunter Wilds beta. The Horizon series is haunted.

To catch up anyone who isn't terminally online, Horizon: Zero Dawn had the misfortune of launching too close to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild back in 2017. Though it still sold incredibly well, chatter about the game was essentially smothered by the colossal impact that Nintendo's first foray into open worlds had. Years later, Horizon: Forbidden West then came out a mere week before another genre-defining attention black hole called Elden Ring. 

Fast forward to now, and the curse seemed to have been all but confirmed when Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered grabbed an October 31 release date - the same day as Dragon Age: The Veilguard's launch. Fans were quick to point out that all three mainline Horizon games had a knack for releasing alongside a massive RPG series, but things got slightly worse this time.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is admittedly not quite as omnipresent as those other two mammoths, sure, and that's where Capcom came in. A mere week before Halloween, the publisher announced that the Monster Hunter Wilds beta would kick off on the very same day, meaning Horizon is now dealing with a double whammy.

SteamDB numbers for Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered don't paint the brightest picture as the open-world refresh pulled in just over 2,000 concurrent players. Meanwhile, Dragon Age: The Veilguard broke a record for developer BioWare with a 70,000 peak and the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is so monstrously popular that it's turning some players' games into a cursed PS1 vision. But there's not much need to worry if you're a fan of the robo-dinosaur series since Horizon's always been immune to the curse, sales-wise, and a remastered game from seven years ago probably isn't high-priority for many gamers up against a limited time beta and a sequel 10 years in the making.

Not a fan of all three? Check out the new games of 2024 and beyond for more.