At this point, with Sony's antics, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that Sony has quietly raised the price of Horizon Zero Dawn on the Playstation Store. The Complete Edition of Horizon Zero Dawn was $19.99 on the PlayStation Store, but the price has now doubled since they announced the remaster. The doubled price has been visible on the PS store since September 25, where the price is now $39.99. In the past couple of months, Sony has made multiple price changes quietly. For example, they bumped up the price of their DualSense controllers by $5 at all outlets without making any sort of announcement. Japan saw a huge price hike of the original PlayStation 5 console of $90, which is the second time Japan has seen the console's price go up.
The price increase of the original version of Horizon Zero Dawn puts the cost of the remaster at $49.99 instead of $29.99 if you were someone who had to purchase the remaster new from the PlayStation Store. While those who owned the original are able to get the remaster as an upgrade for $9.99, those who had the game on disc and now use a Digital Edition PlayStation 5 are at a huge disadvantage. Not only can they no longer play the original unless they have their PlayStation 4, but they won't be able to buy the game for the upgrade price of $9.99, as they cannot verify their purchase by inserting the disc into the console. This means that those from that group of people would have to pay the full-blown price of $49.99 if they wanted to own the remaster.
If you want to get a physical copy of the game, you are able to get the game for $19.99 from physical retailers, but of course, those who are digital-only are at a huge disadvantage.
This is the first time Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition has experienced a price jump in the six years it's been on the market. Of course, it's been on sale during this time, but this is the first time the game has bumped up by such a huge margin. At the moment, Sony has made no comment as to why the price increase has happened or has not verified the fact that they did it.
Again, it's not at all surprising that Sony has done this, especially since they have made so much money by remastering games (with The Last of Us being remastered multiple times), and bumping up the price of the original PlayStation 5 console to attempt to bring in more profit, as their finances have been in a rough position, as shown by their financial reports.
