To help the underlying ecological theme of Horizon Forbidden West, Sony has launched a new tree planting initiative that allows you to contribute simply by playing Aloy's next adventure.
As part of the Play and Plant project, Sony promised to plant a tree in one of three reforestation areas for each player who unlocks the Reached the Daunt trophy in Horizon Forbidden West before March 25.
It is also a fairly easy trophy to unlock, which only requires you to complete the tutorial area of the game, it will only take a few hours.
All three reforestation projects are located in the United States: Douglas County Forest, Sheep Fire Private Lands, and Torreya State Park, and Sony estimates that they will require 288,000 trees to fully reforest. He will plant the trees in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation.
Across the pond in the UK, Sony has partnered with The Eden Project wildlife center and educational tourist attraction to create a 12-acre wildflower habitat.
It will also illuminate The Eden Project's bubble-shaped domes, which not only appear to have been stripped straight from Horizon's vision of the future, but bear a striking resemblance to Aloy's hexagonal grid glider from Forbidden West.
Horizon Forbidden West comes out on February 18. Before you get your hands on the game, find out our thoughts on it and why we think it's great in our Horizon Forbidden West review.
Analysis: a real reward
As PR stunts go, he actually seems to be doing a good thing. As well as allowing Sony to present itself as a serious climate change advocate, the Play and Plant project also sees the publisher using PlayStation trophies in a new way. While achievements are usually only built into games as collectibles that you can show off to your PSN friends, the Reached the Daunt trophy in Horizon Forbidden West will pack a real punch.
It's a minor hit, but it does show how Sony can implement future reward systems using PS5 trophies.
This isn't the first time PlayStation trophies have leaked into the hardware world. In 2020, Sony promised a "royal PlayStation Platinum trophy" to one lucky winner as part of its celebration of gamers, engraved with their name. Participants had to show up on the PlayStation website at a specified time and answer a few questions to be entered into a raffle. As far as we know, Sony never announced who won.
Whether you want to dig into the Guerrilla Game remake to plant a tree or just see what Aloy is up to, you can pre-order Horizon Forbidden West below.
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