Guerrilla Games reportedly scaling back Sony's Horizon Hunters Gathering after weak feedback
Sony developer Guerrilla Games is said to be cutting live-service elements from Horizon Hunters Gathering and adding a story mode, per Bloomberg, following poor results from closed playtests held this year.
Sony's multiplayer Horizon project appears to be struggling after disappointing feedback from closed playtests conducted this year. According to Bloomberg, developer Guerrilla Games is reducing the scope of Horizon Hunters Gathering, stripping out live-service elements and adding a story mode to turn it into more of a traditional co-op experience.
The game is not being canceled outright. Guerrilla reportedly has until the end of the year to impress executives with its next development milestone. Many staff who worked on the title are said to be reassigned to a different project, which also faces its own evaluation later this year.
Main series still years off
Most of Guerrilla's developers were reportedly focused on Horizon Hunters Gathering, while a smaller team simultaneously began work on the next mainline Horizon game. As a result, the sequel to Horizon Forbidden West is reportedly still years from completion.
A separate multiplayer title, an MMO called Horizon Steel Frontiers for PC and mobile, is being developed externally by NCSoft.
Sony's live-service struggles continue
This is the latest setback in Sony's broader push into live-service games, a strategy that has largely disappointed apart from the success of Helldivers 2. In 2022, Sony said it aimed to release ten live-service titles by March of this year, but it later canceled several projects, reportedly including ones based on God of War and Spider-Man. In 2023, Naughty Dog scrapped a Last of Us multiplayer game, and Concord flopped after launch. Sony's Bungie acquisition has also faced difficulties, with the studio ending active development on Destiny 2, while Marathon has not delivered the success executives had hoped for.
