REPORT: Guerilla Games Scales Back Production On Horizon Hunters Gathering After Disastrous Playtest
Project is at risk of cancellation, reports indicate
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
8/19/20262 min read
New plans may strip the live service elements from game
New mainline Horizon game is still far away
PlayStation keeps finding new ways to make a mess. And by new ways, it's more repeating the same mistakes form their own past. Sony's efforts to expand on their live service game plans hits another roadblock, as one of their projects they've kept under wraps is at the risk of becoming another financial blunder.
According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (with this reporting courtesy of Wccftech.com), Horizon Hunters Gathering's playtest held in May was met with overwhelming negative feedback. The new plans have been to remove the element the game was built around in the first place.
Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation division is overhauling Horizon Hunters Gathering, the online action game it announced earlier this year, following negative player feedback," Schreier reported today. "Guerrilla Games has been working to reboot the game since June."
Announced earlier this year, this spin-off of the Horizon franchise was meant to be a major live service project, but the game was noticeably absent from Sony's June State of Play. The new mission statement of reworking the game puts an unofficial delay on the project. To be fair, a release date was never given to it, but this is still a critical setback, as the Sony overheads and Guerilla Games attempt to right the ship.
Chances are, this may not be the same game, if it even exists in the future
Schreier continues: "Following poor feedback in private testing earlier this year, the plan now is to strip out the live-service component and turn it into more of a traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode and a far smaller scope."
WHEN IS THE NEXT HORIZON GAME?
As a result of Guerilla Games' efforts to salvage this potential long-term project, this places any plans for the next mainline entry into Aloy's next adventure on the back burner for the foreseeable future, maybe 2028 or 2029, at the earliest. That's if Horizon Hunters Gathering even sees the light of day. Further reporting indicates that the studio was possibly given until December to convince executives otherwise, or the game may risk cancellation.
This has become a recurring trend with Sony. Almost two years ago, the company shut down Firewalk Studios after the hero shooter Concord was a financial disaster with a terrible launch, leading them to decommission the game just weeks into its release. In 2023, The Last of Us Online was 80% towards completion before Sony shut it down, citing it would be too difficult to make future single player games if their resources were being devoted to sustaining the live service venture. A multiplayer God of War game that was being developed by Bluepoint Studios was cancelled. Sony then shut down Bluepoint, because of course they did.
Sony may never learn their lesson about what makes a live service game work. Will Horizon Hunters Gathering survive a reimagining? And would it even be something you wish to play? Leave your thoughts on our homepage.