Horizon Hunters Gathering, the live service multiplayer spin-off for PlayStation's post-apocalyptic Horizon series, is being rebooted as a smaller and more traditional co-op multiplayer experience with a story mode, according to anonymous insiders. In the process, we're told, several of the project's staff are being reassigned within Sony's gamedev empire, even as a small team of Guerrilla Games work on the next "proper" singleplayer Horizon game.
Announced by Guerrilla earlier in the year, Horizon Hunters Gathering sees (or saw) human adventurers questing forth from a social hub to grab loot. Set after the events of 2022's Horizon Forbidden West, it was announced with an episodic narrative component, a wave-based Machine Incursion survival mode, and a roguelite experience called Cauldron Descent. The devs have been hosting playtests since then, and apparently, the reception has been pretty negative.
Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, several people "familiar with the company's plans" say that Sony now plan to remove the live service element entirely and turn Hunters Gathering into a more straightforward co-op game. The development team now have "through December" (Schreier's words) to impress executives up the ladder. A representative for PlayStation has declined to comment on all this.
Like many a large videogame publisher, PlayStation continue to have a tortured love affair with live service. In June, PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino declared that "we believe that live-service games are content that attracts users on a global level, so we want to continue to revitalize the market through both first-party and third-party content."
That's despite several years of setbacks, including the cancellation of Concord mere months after launch, and the abandoning of live service spin-offs for The Last Of Us, Spider-Man, and God Of War alongside an untitled project cancellation at Days Gone devs Sony Bend. Sony also recently laid off hundreds at Destiny 2 and Marathon developers Bungie. Back in February 2022, Sony brayed their intent to launch a dozen live service games by March 2026, but later chopped that number in half. The tendency for executives to heap all chips on the latest investor-pleasing bandwagon aside, the basic problem is that live service games need a lot of on-going investment, and there are a lot of live service games already, including 'evergreen' performers such as Fortnite that drink up all the attention.
As for the next story-led Horizon game, according to Bloomberg's sources, it's years from completion. Hopefully, it'll land after Sony decide they're going to release first-party singleplayer games on PC again.
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