Horizon Hunters Gathering promised to expand the universe of the Horizon series by Guerrilla Games with a live service game on PlayStation 5 , but following the latest playtest in May , the game seemed to have disappeared, not even making an appearance during June's State of Play . According to a new report from Bloomber g , there's a good reason why the live service game disappeared, as it is being rebooted as a traditional co-op multiplayer game, and is at risk of cancellation.
"Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation division is overhauling Horizon Hunters Gathering, the online action game it announced earlier this year, following negative player feedback," wrote Jason Schreier in today's report. "Guerrilla Games has been working to reboot the game since June."
"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," the report continues. The game hasn't been canceled yet, but there's risk of this happening by the end of the year, as the studio told staff in a meeting today that they have until December to impress executives with their next milestone. In addition, many developers are being reassigned to a different project that is also going to be evaluated by the end of the year.
In addition to the above, Jason Schreier also confirmed that the next main entry in the series is still far, far away, as Guerrilla has been working on Horizon Hunters Gathering for a while.
Horizon Hunters Gathering is only the latest in a string of live service failures from Sony , the most notable of them being Concord . This fixation on live service games also had far reaching consequences among PlayStation Studios , as Bluepoint Games was working on a live service God of War game that was eventually canned, leading to the studio's closure after some of its pitches were refused, including a Bloodborne remake in the vein of the team's Demon's Souls remake.
It's honestly baffling how PlayStation seems to have completely botched what could have been a very interesting game. Given the world of the Horizon series, a Monster Hunter clone using the same visual style as the two main entries in the franchise would have worked wonders, as both games do scratch a similar itch, albeit in a purely single player format. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if this reboot of the entire experience will attempt to convert the experience to just that.
However, with PlayStation's reputation being what it is with its controversial decision to end disc production in 2028, it remains to be seen if gamers will give this reboot a chance.
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