Speaking with MCV recently, Sony Interactive Entertainment UK product manager Jon Edwards said they’re excited by the reaction fans have had to Horizon Zero Dawn, and they really feel that it’s “an exciting addition to the array of PlayStation exclusives already available.”

With two weeks to go until launch, Edwards says pre-orders in the UK are “in line with our expectations.” Even after Horizon launches, they’ll still continue a strong marketing campaign, as they “see this as a key title for PlayStation and supporting it through all of its life cycle is key.”

While Edwards wouldn’t give sales estimates, he did say Sony is optimistic about how Guerrilla’s game will perform:

We’re really optimistic about how this title’s likely to perform. It’s got a great studio behind it and what we’ve revealed so far has been really well received. It was also on many ‘Most Anticipated Games of 2017’ lists which added to our confidence.

Edwards also believes there’s a chance Horizon becomes another big franchise for Sony. “Nothing has been announced to date but I think there’s a lot of potential for this to be an exciting new franchise for us – we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.

Back in 2015, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida said there were some concerns about Horizon Zero Dawn, as it starred a female protagonist. In a recent article on the PlayStation Blog, Lead Narrative Designer John Gonzales revealed that Aloy was the first pillar the team at Guerrilla used to define what Horizon is about.

He later said:

We focused really hard on creating the best possible character we could. We never thought that it would be a selling point that we’re having a female protagonist, we thought it would be more a selling point that you’re being the best possible person and character to play as in this world. People who have played the game so far seem to really enjoy being Aloy.

Horizon Zero Dawn will be out on February 28 in North America and March 1 in Europe for PlayStation 4.

[Source: MCV, PS Blog]