Guerrilla reportedly retooling Horizon Hunters Gathering into a traditional co-op game

Horizon Hunters Gathering Undergoes Rework

Guerrilla Games is reportedly retooling its multiplayer game, Horizon Hunters Gathering. The changes include reducing live-service components and incorporating a story mode, shifting it towards a more traditional co-op experience.

Feedback Drives Strategic Shift

This re-evaluation of Horizon Hunters Gathering comes after negative feedback from closed playtests conducted earlier this year. Instead of canceling the project, Guerrilla has until the end of the year to demonstrate progress to executives. Some developers from the project are being reassigned to another game, which also faces an evaluation later this year.

Impact on Other Horizon Projects

Most of Guerrilla's development resources were allocated to Horizon Hunters Gathering, with a smaller team working on the next mainline Horizon game. Consequently, the sequel to Horizon Forbidden West is still years from completion. A separate Horizon multiplayer game, Horizon Steel Frontiers, is being developed externally by NCSoft for PC and mobile platforms.

Sony's Live-Service Strategy Challenges

This development is part of a broader trend for Sony, which has faced difficulties with its live-service game initiative. While Helldivers 2 has been successful, other projects, including reported games based on God of War and Spider-Man, have been canceled. Naughty Dog also canceled a Last of Us multiplayer game in 2023, and the game Concord was not successful. Even Sony's acquisition of Bungie has seen challenges, with Destiny 2's active development ending and Marathon not meeting expectations.