Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy Is A "PlayStation Icon Of The Future," Sony Says

Horizon Zero Dawn is a step in a new direction for developer Guerrilla Games. Unlike its Killzone shooter series, Zero Dawn is an open-world RPG. It's still early days--the game isn't even out yet--but Sony sounds optimistic that Zero Dawn could be the company's next big franchise.

"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," Sony UK product manager Jon Edwards told MCV. "We'll just have to wait and see."

Zero Dawn launches on February 28 exclusively for PlayStation 4. The game comes to Europe a day later, on March 1.

The game stars a character named Aloy, who is inspired by the Game of Thrones character Ygritte. PlayStation president of Worldwide Studios said in 2015 that, in the early stages of the game's development, the company wondered if having a female protagonist--which was always Guerrilla's plan--might be "risky." Because Horizon was such a major project, Sony even conducted focus tests to see how people would react.

In the MCV interview, Edwards said the fact that Zero Dawn features a female lead has not been an issue in any way for the game's marketing plans. He added that he anticipates Aloy becoming a "PlayStation icon of the future."

"Guerrilla Games has talked about this in the past and they were very much focused on creating a curious and determined character that was believable in this new world--it just so happened that the character ended up being female," he said. "Aloy is spirited, adventurous, and driven to figure out the challenges that she comes across in this post-apocalyptic world inhabited by machines. You really buy into her as a tribal hunter, and we think that the players will really enjoy playing as her."

For more on Zero Dawn, read all of GameSpot's previous stories and watch every video here.