Horizon Hunters Gathering, the more cartoonish multiplayer spin-off of the Horizon RPG series, is reportedly being rebooted internally following a poor reception from playtesters. This news comes via a Bloomberg articleHorizon Hunters Gathering, stating that the developer, Guerrilla Games, plans to strip the game of its central live-service component. This will make the game a more classic co-op offering, with a story mode being added to the experience for good measure.
According to the report, this decision was made back in June. Horizon Hunters Gathering has not, as of now, been cancelled, but it is on thin ice, with Guerrilla Games having told staff that the studio has until December to impress both Sony and PlayStation executives. Several members of the title’s development team have also been moved to another team at Guerrilla, with a milestone due out in December of this year. This “tiny team wasn’t ‘confirmed’ to be developing the third mainline Horizon game, tentatively known as Horizon 3, but much of the reporting makes it seem that way. The game is still years away.
Around its announcement, game director Arjan Bak described Horizon Hunters Gathering as such:
Combat is tactical, reactive, and deeply skill-based, building on the tactical precision of the Horizon games while embracing the dynamics of team play. The foundation of Horizon Hunters Gathering centers around challenging and replayable hunts.
When Sony acquired Destiny developer Bungie back in 2022, the publisher unveiled a plan to launch around 12 live service titles by the end of 2025’s fiscal year. The plan itself obviously did not pan out the way they had hoped, not even hitting the 12 planned games releasing. Among those in development were a Last of Us Multiplayer from Naughty Dog, as well as a God of War Multiplayer from Bluepoint, the latter being closed shortly after the project was cancelled.
Other titles we did see released, like Concord, performed poorly and were closed quickly, also resulting in developer Firewalk Studios’ closure. During this period, Sony did have some success as well, with Helldivers 2 releasing to a large amount of praise, going on to sell 12 million copies in only 12 weeks, though this was a rare exception in the grand scheme of things.
Following all of this, PlayStation CEO and president Hideaki Nishino stated he still saw live service as an important part of the company’s path forward. He Stated:
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.
These comments were made back in June, pointing towards Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as one such example of their investment in the Live-Service space. If these reports are fully accurate, his statements coincide with the time that Guerilla began rebooting Horizon Hunters Gathering, dropping the live-service component.
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