Guerrilla Games set itself up with an unusual challenge when developing Horizon Forbidden West, which comes out on Friday, February 18th. According to the game’s director and technical director, Guerrilla was well aware of the PS5 and much of its capabilities when it started working on Forbidden West in 2018. But, the company also planned to make the game work on the PS4, a console that turns nine years old this fall.

It’s not unusual for games to be released on both consoles, but Forbidden West is notable for being a particularly massive and detailed game, perhaps the most advanced title yet to come out on the PS5. In a conversation with Engadget, game director Mathijs de Jonge and technical director Michiel van der Leeuw discussed Guerrilla’s process for making sure that the game worked for the PS4 while simultaneously showing off everything the PS5 is capable of.

“We knew it was going to be tricky making something that would make the PlayStation 5 shine, but also be really rewarding for people who have PlayStation 4,” said van der Leeuw. “So we're very happy that we knew about the PS5’s capabilities very early on, because that meant we could plan for how we're going to make this distinction.”

The most immediately obvious difference between the two versions is visual fidelity, with the PS5 targeting 4K resolution (reduced to a checkerboard-upscaled 1800p when running in 60 fps “performance” mode). “From the start, we targeted having higher-fidelity characters, high-fidelity environments, higher-fidelity vegetation, everything, just for the PS5,” van der Leeuw said. “So you'll just see different models for the PS4 version, but with the same sort of atmosphere throughout the game.”

The realities of play-testing during a worldwide pandemic actually provided Guerrilla plenty of opportunities to get feedback on the PS4 experience. “It was really difficult for us, the pandemic just hit us while we're in peak production,” van der Leeuw added. But Guerrilla was able to use Sony’s PlayStation Now game streaming technology to send early builds of the game to PS4 play testers. “Because of the pandemic, we had to switch to remote play testing,” said de Jonge. Sony would have done that with the PS5, but it wasn’t possible to have people into their offices during the pandemic.

The upshot of this was that Guerrilla had to make sure the PS4 version was getting plenty of attention throughout the development process. “It was a big advantage, in a way, that we did have the PlayStation 4,” de Jonge said, “because that meant we really had to get the build in a good state rather than just focusing on the PS5 version.”

SIE

While the team was conscious of making things work for the PS4 throughout the game’s development, they also were painstaking about having the PS5 version stand out visually. “We’d look at screenshots for every single thing on-screen, whether it was the grass, the sky, the leaves, the cloth, the hair – everything should have something where if you look at the screenshots, you'd feel like this is definitely the PS5 version,” van der Leeuw said.

While improved fidelity and frame rate were obvious things to expect in the PS5 version, Guerrilla put a lot of thought into how the PS5’s controller could be a differentiator – but it was somewhat of a balancing act getting the experience right. “In our early prototypes, I remember that we set the [adaptive trigger] values relatively high,” de Jonge said, “and I remember that after a few minutes we already felt some fatigue with the triggers. And then we started adding the haptic feedback. And then you have to balance how much haptic you have versus how much pressure you put on the triggers.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the team working on haptics is separate from the team working on the adaptive triggers. “Haptics are handled in our studio by the audio design designers, but the adaptive triggers are handled by our game designers,” de Jonge said. Obviously, no part of game design happens in a vacuum, but he specifically cites the collaboration between those teams as something he was proud of in the development process.

The end result is something that doesn’t scream out to you as a huge update, but a skillfully executed component that helps Horizon Forbidden West shine on the PS5. “I think it was great to see also how we could [use haptics and adaptive triggers] make the different weapons stand out, sort of give them their own character,” de Jonge said. “So it really feels different when you use a slingshot versus when you fire an arrow using a bow.”

Like most games specifically built for the PS5, Horizon Forbidden West loads quickly, thanks to the console’s built-in SSD. With such a massive map to explore, near-instantaneous loading (like when you fast travel) is a huge quality of life improvement. But van de Leeuw said these optimizations are more than just having a fast drive. “You don’t realize how easily games are bottlenecked,” he said. “If you run a PC game on a very fast SSD, it doesn't automatically load in like seven seconds. There's so much work we had to do.”

SIE

The end result is a game so quick that the development team had to revamp the tips that appear on loading screens. “In Horizon Zero Dawn, we called it fast travel, but it could take maybe a minute to actually load,” de Jonge said. “With the PS5, it’s maybe four or five seconds, it loads so quickly that players can’t even read the hints.” But from testing, Guerrilla knew that players came to rely on these hints, so they decided to slow things down just a bit. “We had to add a very simple feature where it hangs on the loading screen for enough time so you can actually read at least one hint while it loads.” Of course, people who want to speed through things can just mash X or turn off the pause in settings so that the game loads up as fast as possible.

While Engadget hasn’t tested Horizon Forbidden West on the PS4 yet, early reportsindicate that Guerrilla stuck the landing, building a game that doesn’t feel compromised on the PS4 that still shows off the power of the PS5. “I'm quite happy how it turned out,” said van der Leeuw. “I'm very proud of the PS5 version. But the PS4 version has the same sort of atmosphere, same sort of feel. Of course, it's a generation older, but it holds up, I think, quite well.”

Samsung's next hardware event will coincide with Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company announced today it will host a fully virtual keynote on Sunday, February 27th at 1PM ET. You'll be able to watch the event on Samsung's website and the company's YouTube channel. You'll also find full coverage here at Engadget.

In years past, Mobile World Congress was one of the most important events in Samsung's release calendar. Between 2014 and 2018, the company frequently took to Barcelona to announce its latest Galaxy S phones. However, after it came out with the Galaxy S9 in 2018, the company began instead to unveil those devices at its own Unpacked events. It's easy to see why: while Samsung always dominated the MWC news cycle, it still shared the limelight with other phone makers, including Sony and LG.

And then the pandemic came. In 2020, the GSMA canceled the event. One year later, it pushed it back to late June, but Samsung was among the companies that said it wouldn't have a physical presence at the conference. Now, after two years away, it's returning to the MWC roster.

As for what we can expect from Samsung, it's hard to say. At its first Unpacked of 2022, the company announced the Galaxy S22 and Tab S8. Judging from the invite Samsung shared, the company could focus on devices like the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold. The next version of the latter will reportedly take inspiration from the new Galaxy S22 Ultra and add a built-in slot for the company's S Pen Stylus. We won't know the full details until Samsung confirms them come February 27th. Either way, you'll want to visit Engadget that day to see what the company has been working on behind the scenes.

Epic Games says there are now more than 500 million Epic Games accounts. Many of those are used to buy and play PC games, and accounts are also utilized on consoles and mobile devices for the likes of Fortnite and Rocket League.

Those who play Fortnite on console, for instance, don't need to create a full Epic account. Instead, they'll have a "nameless" Epic Games account that doesn't have its own display name or an email address attached to it. Fortnite had more than 350 million registered players as of May 2020, and those appear to make up a significant proportion of that 500 million figure.

The Epic Games Store hit more than 194 million users in 2021, an increase of 34 million from the previous year. The company said that "daily active users peaked at 31.1 million, and peak concurrent users reached 13.2 million," while there were 62 million monthly active users in December.

The publisher has invested heavily in its free PC games program, which will continue for at least the rest of this year. Documents that emerged from Epic's legal battle with Apple showed that it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the endeavor. Last year, Epic gave away 89 different titles and 765 million free games overall.

Offering Grand Theft Auto V at no cost brought in 7 million new Epic Games Store users in a single day, as The Verge notes. Giveaways for the likes of Civilization VI, World War Z and Subnautica led to smaller, but still notable spikes in new user numbers. Rocket League switching to a free-to-play model boosted user numbers too.

Players spent around $840 million in the store in 2021, an increase of 20 percent from 2020. Just over a third of that was spent on third-party games. The biggest third-party titles on the store last year were Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Hitman 3, Far Cry 6, Genshin Impact, Darkest Dungeon, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Chivalry 2 and GTA V.

Meanwhile, Epic says there have been more than 6 million downloads of The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in two months. The tech demo, which is well worth checking out, shows off what UE5 can do. There was also a 40 percent increase in the number of Unreal Engine downloads last year, while Epic says 48 percent of announced current-gen games are being built on Unreal Engine.

The first major No Man's Sky patch of the year has arrived. Among other things, Hello Games says the Sentinel update improves the space exploration sim's AI and introduces a buildable AI mech. You can put an AI pilot in your Exomech and have it follow you and help out in battles. Players can build a drone companion too.

Hello Games

As the name suggests, the update brings in changes for the Sentinels, robots that will attack if you try to change an environment or they catch you on a planet that hosts rare items. There are new enemy types (including repair drones and a giant mech with a jetpack) and headquarters for the machines, which are able to deploy shields as part of a big overhaul of combat and weapon systems.

You'll have some fresh tricks up your sleeve as well. Along with active camouflage, there are more weapons for you to wield, including a flamethrower and stun grenades. You can expect to see new visual effects for weapons and multi-tools too.

Regardless of which graphics card they have, Hello Games says that all PC players can now take advantage of an AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling feature. Those with compatible RTX cards can switch on NVIDIA's AI-based DLAA anti-aliasing mode too. Also, No Man's Sky has been optimized for the upcoming Steam Deck, including the addition of touchscreen controls.

Hello Games has added more lore and missions as well as a new expedition, which offers those who complete it a fresh customization for their jetpack. What's more, players can now freely rotate build pieces in the build menu, opening up more ways to construct bases. Teleporting between bases and space stations in the same star system is faster too.

No Man's Sky is currently available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. You should be able to access all of these features on Nintendo Switch (hopefully including touch controls) when the game lands on that console this summer.

Valve may have cautioned Steam Deck buyers about repairing the handheld themselves, but you might not have to be quite so wary in practice. iFixit (which provides official parts for Valve hardware) has torn down the production model Steam Deck and discovered that it's relatively easy to repair, with a few notable exceptions. It doesn't require much effort to get inside, with clear labels for "basically everything." The design is modular enough that you can repair many elements without replacing or dismantling more components than necessary.

You can replace the SSD with a similarly small equivalent using one screw, and removing the display doesn't require much more than a suction cup and some heat. Valve is also keenly aware that Steam Deck owners may be worried about thumbstick drift — you can replace both sticks just by removing three screws. While drift won't necessarily be a real problem, you won't have to send in your machine if that problem ever crops up.

This isn't quite a self-repair paradise. Battery replacements are "rough," according to iFixit, with elaborate procedures that include draining most of the pack for safety's sake. That's a problem when the battery can drain in as little as 90 minutes.You may also want to be gentle with the USB-C port and microSD slot, as both are soldered to the Steam Deck's custom motherboard.

Despite this, iFixit found the Steam Deck easier to repair than some modern laptops. That might be heartening if you either prefer to fix devices yourself or hope to upgrade the storage. You might only need to send the Deck away for service if there's a truly serious failure.

You can count burger-flipping robots as one pandemic innovation that’s here to stay. White Castle announced today that it will be bringing Flippy 2, a robot chef that can essentially perform the same tasks as a team of fry cooks, to 100 more locations this year. This amounts to roughly a third of White Castle restaurants nationwide, so it’s likely Flippy may become a permanent addition to this burger chain’s workforce.

Last fall the burger chain first teamed up with Miso Robotics, the makers of Flippy, to launch a pilot program in its Chicagoland location. The company then unveiled Flippy 2, the latest iteration of the chef robot, back in November. Now it appears that the robot chef is ready for prime-time.

It’s unlikely the average White Castle patron will notice the new robots when they first arrive. Since Flippy 2 is designed to perform “back-of-the-house” kitchen functions, that’s where you’ll find them. The robot uses AI to identify the type of food (such as burgers, chicken fingers, or fries), picks it up, cooks it, puts it in its own fry basket and finally puts it in a hot holding area.

But it’s possible your White Castle order may come out slightly faster than usual. Flippy 2 can dole out 60 baskets of food an hour, according to Miso Robotics’ website, or roughly 300 burgers a day. Unlike the earlier model, Flippy 2 can operate entirely without human intervention.

Miso Robotics is primarily crowdfunded; the company raised more than $50 million with more than 15,000 investors and is currently in its Series E funding round.

It’s no secret we’re in the middle of an AI-enabled cooking revolution. Miso Robotics has come out with a wing-making version of Flippy which Buffalo Wild Wings is currently testing, according to CNBC. Since robots also minimize human contact in the kitchen, they’re also used as a pandemic safety measure. Beijing is even using robot chefs to feed athletes and guests in its closed Winter Olympics bubble. It’s likely we’ll see more robotic innovations popping up in the restaurant industry, especially given recent labor shortages.

Dead by Daylight is no stranger to high-profile crossovers. Icons like Leatherface, Freddy Krueger and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill are just some of the characters that have joined the game’s roster in the years since its release in 2016. And now you can add Sadako from Kōji Suzuki’s cult-classic horror novel Ring to that list.

She’ll join Dead by Daylight on March 8th when developer Behavior Interactive releases the Sadako Rising DLC. The studio didn’t share many details on the game’s latest playable killer other than to promise she’ll bring a greater emphasis on psychological horror to the matches she’s a part of. Dave Richard, the creative director of Dead by Daylight, said Sadako, known as The Onryō in-game, makes use of some “creepy and surprising” gameplay mechanics.

If you’re a fan of the Ring franchise, you can also look forward to the DLC adding Yoichi Asakawa as a playable survivor. If you’ve seen the original 1998 Japanese adaptation of Ring, you may remember Yoichi as the only character to survive his encounter with Sadako. He’s now an adult and a marine biologist in search of answers. It’s an unusual way to continue the story of a character but Behavior Interactive received the blessing of the Kadokawa Corporation, the company that produced the Ring films, to do so.

Sadako Rising will be available to play on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Stadia and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store and Windows Store.

We got our first look at Dune: Spice Wars at the 2021 Game Awards, and now developer Shiro Games is giving fans of Frank Herbert’s seminal novels a better look at the project. In a gameplay trailer the studio shared on Tuesday, we see how a game of Spice Wars plays out. Unlike most 4X games, including Civilization VI and Humankind, Spice Wars is part real-time strategy game. That means you won’t have hundreds of turns where you can agonize over every possible move to decide how to lead your faction. That should make decisions like where to send your troops, what settlements to invade and how to engage in diplomacy more impactful.

Of course, each time you move your troops or fight in combat out in the open desert of Arrakis, you’ll need to keep in mind a Sandworm may come to snack on your units. Judging from the trailer, you’ll also have access to agents you can send to organizations like the Spacing Guild, CHOAM and even the Landsraad. When it arrives on Steam Early Access later this year, Spice Wars will feature four playable factions. Naturally, the noble House Atredies and fearsome House Harkonnen are among the groups you can lead.

That the first Dune game in two decades should include RTS elements is fitting. In 1992, Westwood Studios helped established the formula for the genre with the excellent Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty. While the popularity of RTS games has waned in recent years, Dune II’s legacy and influence persist. You wouldn’t have MOBAs like League of Legends if not for the work Westwood Studios and Blizzard did in the early ‘90s.

Much of the innovation on true wireless earbuds hasn’t included overall design. Sure, companies have extended battery life and added a slew of new features, but the primary exterior advances have been in reducing size rather than drastically changing the aesthetic. Well, Sony would like to have a word. Today, the company announced one of the most unique sets of true wireless earbuds we’ve seen.

Dubbed the LinkBuds ($180), this tiny set features an entirely open wear style that lets outside noise in by design rather than relying on an ambient sound mode. And Sony didn’t just build something that sits outside of your ear either. The company designed a circular driver that is entirely open in the middle, like a donut. As we’ve seen in the past, the always transparent audio presents a number of challenges to sound quality. Has Sony cracked the code or do the LinkBuds prioritize convenience over audio?

Design

This isn’t the first time Sony has tried its hand at an “open-style concept.” Back in 2017, the company debuted what would become known as the Xperia Ear Duo. These true wireless earbuds featured an open ring that sat outside of your ear canal with all of the necessary tech stored in an attached case that sat behind your lobes. They slid on from the bottom and they looked and felt awkward. Since then, Sony has primarily focused on more “traditional” true wireless earbuds with a component that actually goes inside your ear canal with a silicone or foam tip on the end.

The LinkBuds are a massive advance on the Xperia Ear Duo. True wireless tech has come a long way in the last five years, allowing companies like Sony to drastically reduce the overall size of earbuds. Here, there’s an IPX4-rated two-part design with a tiny dome-shaped housing holding the bulk of the components. Attached to it is an open circle that holds the ring-shaped speaker unit. The entire thing is made of hard plastic, save for the flexible “fit supporters” that help hold the LinkBuds in place.

Billy Steele/Engadget

Unlike the Galaxy Buds Live from Samsung or Bose’s Sport Open Earbuds, the Sony LinkBuds open up in the middle of the driver rather than putting a small speaker outside of your ear and not sealing off the canal. Due to this and the chosen materials, the LinkBuds aren’t as comfortable at the Galaxy Buds Live as there actually is something stuck into the opening of your ear. It’s just not shoved in too far like a typical set of earbuds. I don’t know how you could protect the driver and make that area softer, but a little cushion there would go a long way. And slightly more rigid “fit supporters” may help keep the LinkBuds in place slightly better.

Features and software

As we saw on the WF-1000XM4, Sony isn’t afraid to absolutely pack its true wireless earbuds full of tech, and that continues on the LinkBuds. First, the company opted for a touch-based setup for the controls, only you don’t touch the buds to complete the task. You tap right in front of your ear. A forward-facing motion sensor detects vibrations when you do so, allowing you to play/pause, skip tracks (forwards and backwards), adjust volume or summon a voice assistant. However, only double and triple tap gestures are in play here, so you only get four slots – two per side – to pick your most-needed actions. Thankfully, some folks can skip the voice assistant here as the LinkBuds offer hands-free access to Google Assistant (Android only) and Alexa.

Sony calls the technology Wide Area Tap and it’s remarkably reliable when you’re trying to use it as intended. However, I noticed that whenever I was chewing while listening to music or a podcast, the LinkBuds would often be tricked into thinking I just made some taps. That’s likely due to the protrusion of my jaw as I bite down. You can disable Wide Area Tap entirely if this happens to you, but you’ll have to reach for your phone to control the tunes which isn’t a great alternative.

The company also brought along some of the best features from the WF-1000XM4, including Speak-to-Chat. This tool automatically pauses the audio when you start talking, so you don’t have to awkwardly tap when someone walks up for a quick convo. Sony has refined the feature a bit too, allowing you to choose between three pause lengths (5, 15 or 30 seconds) before the LinkBuds will pick up where you left off. You can now adjust the voice detect sensitivity with automatic, high and low settings. Adaptive Volume Control also returns, the option that can tweak the level if the sound of your environment gets louder, and then go back once things quiet down.

Billy Steele/Engadget

As always, the Sony Headphones Connect app provides a host of handy items. You’ll get battery levels for individual earbuds and the case right up top on the main screen with media and volume controls underneath. Tap over to the Sound tab and you have the option to enable Speak-to-Chat alongside audio presets and manual EQ settings. There’s also the ability to redo the 360 Reality Audio analysis that personalizes sound based on photos of your ears. Lastly, DSEE is an option you can allow to do its thing automatically. As a refresher, DSEE or Digital Sound Enhancement Engine is Sony’s upscaling tech that attempts to improve compressed audio by restoring the “natural, expansive sound” when it’s enabled.

The System tab is the next option over and it’s where you can activate Adaptive Volume Control, customize/disable Wide Area Tap, adjust the automatic power off duration, disable automatic pausing when you remove an earbud and more. One of the Wide Area Tap options will allow you to automatically pick up on Spotify where you left off. Appropriately named Spotify Tap, the feature can also provide a personalized recommendation with an additional tap.

Sound quality

Sony designed a 12mm ring-shaped driver for the LinkBuds. This is how the part that goes into your ear is able to be open in the middle. It also means that a considerable amount of outside noise is coming in at all times. That convenience is the whole idea, but don’t expect flagship-level audio to accompany your environmental murmur or roar. The LinkBuds certainly allow you to tune into both your location and some music or a podcast, but you don’t necessarily get the best of both worlds.

Overall, the sound is a bit flat and compressed across genres. Chaotic metal like Every Time I DIe’s Radical is subdued, largely because the booming bass and dynamic details in the instruments are both restrained. The bluegrass stylings of Punch Brothers and other acoustic styles sound pretty good, but hip-hop is a mess. The bass on albums like Kendrik Lamar’s DAMN. almost pops instead of bumping. During my tests, I noticed the sound is actually pretty good if I push the LinkBuds further into my ear canals. The problem is they don’t stay here and it’s very uncomfortable. In the spot where the earbuds sit on their own for me, in accordance with Sony’s wear directions, the sound is just… there… for some genres.

Billy Steele/Engadget

LinkBuds support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. If you’re unfamiliar, the format is designed to be more immersive, with simulated positioning of sound sources and instruments “around” the listener. The issue has always been that content is limited and accessing it requires a hifi music subscription from the likes of Amazon, Tidal or Deezer. Similar to other devices, 360RA tracks on LinkBuds are noticeably louder and have more presence than the same songs on Apple Music and other services. To me they sound better, but I will admit the open nature of these earbuds doesn’t exactly lend itself to listening in spatial audio. It's an experience best reserved for over-ear headphones or properly equipped speakers.

There’s no ANC here, but not countering noise is the whole point.. Sony made the LinkBuds for constant use, linking “online and offline worlds – hence the name. There’s no effort given to trying to block out the world around, but rather to enable you to be ever present by design. You can counter distractions with volume here, but even then you’ll still be subject to them even when you’re listening to music or a podcast. So if you want earbuds that will help you silence the roar so you can focus or relax, these aren’t them. And again, they aren’t meant to be.

When it comes to calls, Sony says “precise voice pickup technology” employs signal processing and a noise reduction algorithm to quiet ambient rumbling and focus on your speech. Lots of companies make claims about call quality that ultimately don’t pan out, but Sony comes through. Constant background roar like a white noise machine is cut out almost entirely as are distractions like TV dialogue. You still sound like you’re on speakerphone to the person on the other end, but at least the rumble of the room on your end won’t be as much of an issue.

Battery life

Sony promises up to five and a half hours on the LinkBuds themselves, with another 12 hours in the charging case. During my tests, I managed almost six hours of use before having to dock the earbuds, consistently getting around 30 minutes more than advertised. There’s no wireless charging here, but a 10-minute plug-in will give you 90 minutes of use. Honestly, the charging case for the LinkBuds is so small, I’d rather that component remain compact than for Sony to make it larger to fit any Qi-compatible bits.

The competition

Sony isn’t the only company to try the open fit concept on true wireless earbuds. Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live have an “open type” design that covers your ears, but everything sits on the outside. This model is equipped with ANC, though it doesn’t offer robust sound blocking since your ear canal isn’t sealed off. Audio also isn’t the best, especially at high volumes. However, you get the added comfort of not having something shoved in your ear at all. Combine that with always-on Bixby, wireless charging, iOS integration and customizable controls, and you’ve got a decent set of earbuds. If you can live with the bean jokes, the going rate is around $100.

Another recent take on the open-ear idea are the Bose Sport Open Earbuds. These have a behind-the-ear hook design similar to the Powerbeats Pro and other fitness buds. Despite good battery life, reliable controls and the inherent merits of an open design, these earbuds don’t come with a charging case (it's more of a dock) and you can’t really customize them to your needs. What’s more, the hard plastic construction means they’re not very comfortable and the design actually hinders sound quality to a degree. Plus, they’re more expensive than Sony’s LinkBuds at $199.

Wrap-up

Sony largely succeeded at what it set out to do: It built a set of true wireless earbuds that offers transparent audio by design rather than relying on microphones to pipe in ambient sound. Indeed, the LinkBuds blend your music, podcasts or videos with whatever is going on around you. There are certainly benefits for this, whether it be the ability to be less of a jerk in the office or to stay safe outdoors.

Even with all of the handy tech Sony packs in, earbuds need to be comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time, and the area around the unique ring-shaped drivers is simply too hard to be accommodating. Consistent audio performance would make a big difference, too. For now, the LinkBuds are an interesting product that could be more compelling with some refinements. Hopefully Sony will do just that, because I’m very much looking forward to version 2.0.

The LinkBuds are available to order today from Amazon and Best Buy in grey and white color options for $180.

The next PlayStation trophy you earn could provide more than just bragging rights. Sony has launched a "Play and Plant" program that will plant a tree when you earn a trophy in Horizon Forbidden West. Complete "Reached the Daunt" by March 25th and Sony will team with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant a tree as part of reforestation efforts in California, Florida and Wisconsin. You can save the real Earth while you save the virtual one, to put it another way.

The project won't please every environmentalist. Sony and the Arbor Day Foundation will halt donations when they reach the estimated 288,000 trees needed to complete the reforestation efforts. Given that Horizon Forbidden West is Sony's tentpole game for early 2022, the company could hit that milestone very quickly. Wouldn't it be kinder to the planet (and latecomers) to plant as many trees as possible?

Still, the plant-a-tree program represents a unique tie-in, and an experiment in pairing in-game achievements with real-world outcomes. You now have a material incentive to make progress. We wouldn't expect initiatives like this to become commonplace, but it's easy to see more of them in the future — if just to keep people engrossed in a game beyond its first few hours.