How PS5 delivers 'virtually no loading screens' in Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West director Mathijs de Jonge praises PS5's rapid speed

PS5 Horizon Forbidden West
(Image credit: Sony)
Shabana Arif
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Horizon Forbidden West was announced for the PS5 during the console's reveal event last week, and game director Mathijs de Jonge has shared more details of what's in store for players in terms of the game, as well as what Sony's console brings to the table: it's super fast SSD.

The PlayStation 5 is going to be a huge step up in hardware from the PS4, running 100 times faster than the current gen console. Epic Games' Tim Sweeney has said the SSD will even top gaming PCs, while PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny has said loading sections of in-game worlds will be so fast that developers won't need to rely on "corridors" to hide it from players; and we'll see forst-hand in Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West.

Offering an insight into the game, Jonge promised a near absence of loading screens altogether:

"With the PS5's SSD, there will be virtually no loading screens. In an open-world game like Horizon Forbidden West, if you open up the map and fast travel from one end to the other, restarting from a check-point will be super fast. And when you boot up the game, you're right there, in the action."

The console exclusive title is just one of the many titles coming from Sony-owned studios, which puts them in the enviable position of having access to the PS5's system designers.  

Earlier this week, PlayStation's executive vice-president, and head of business for Europe, Simon Rutter, described how Gran Turismo 7 will benefit from "almost every single technological enhancement" the hardware has to offer.

The console's SSD is a huge part of kicking things up a notch in terms of the next generation of video games, with Epic Games' VP of engineering, Nick Penwarden, saying:

"The ability to stream in content at extreme speeds enables developers to create denser and more detailed environments, changing how we think about streaming content. 

"It’s so impactful that we’ve rewritten our core I/O subsystems for Unreal Engine with the PlayStation 5 in mind."

We can't wait to see how the PS5's hardware evolves the landscape of videogames, but for now we can drool over the trailers for all of the console's confirmed titles so far, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Hitman 3. 

Shabana Arif
Shabana Arif

Shabana worked at T3.com as News Editor covering tech and gaming, and has been writing about video games for almost a decade (and playing them since forever). She's had bylines at major gaming sites during her freelance career before settling down here at T3, and has podcasts, streaming, and video content under her belt to boot. Outside of work, she also plays video games and should really think about expanding her hobbies. If you have any tech or gaming tips, shoot over an email or DM her on social media.

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