Sony’s Live-Service Woes Continue as ‘Horizon Hunters Gathering’ Undergoes Major Overhaul
San Mateo, CA – Sony’s ambitious foray into the live-service gaming market is facing yet another hurdle, as developer Guerrilla Games is reportedly undertaking a significant overhaul of its upcoming multiplayer title, Horizon Hunters Gathering. Following lukewarm and reportedly poor feedback from closed playtests earlier this year, the game is set to shed its live-service elements and embrace a more traditional co-operative structure with the addition of a story mode.
The news, initially reported by Bloomberg, suggests a decisive shift in strategy for the PlayStation exclusive. Rather than cancelling the project outright, Guerrilla Games has been given a deadline until the end of the year to "impress executives with their next milestone." This reprieve comes with significant internal restructuring, as many developers previously working on Horizon Hunters Gathering are being reassigned to a different, yet-to-be-disclosed project, which will also undergo its own evaluation later this year.
This pivot casts a shadow over Sony’s broader live-service ambitions, a strategy that has largely struggled to gain traction outside of the surprise success of Helldivers 2. In 2022, Sony had announced plans to launch ten live-service titles by March of this year. However, this target has proven elusive, with a string of projects reportedly cancelled, including those based on beloved franchises like God of War and Spider-Man. Naughty Dog famously nixed a Last of Us multiplayer game in 2023, and the highly anticipated Concord faced a disastrous launch and subsequent shutdown. Even the acquisition of Bungie, lauded for its live-service expertise, hasn’t been without its challenges, with Destiny 2 ending active development and the new title Marathon yet to achieve the expected blockbuster status.
The shift for Horizon Hunters Gathering is particularly impactful given its prominent position within Guerrilla Games. A significant portion of the studio’s development resources were reportedly allocated to the multiplayer title, while a smaller team began preliminary work on the next mainline Horizon game. Consequently, the highly anticipated sequel to Horizon Forbidden West is now said to be "years away from completion." Meanwhile, a separate Horizon massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Horizon Steel Frontiers, is being developed externally by NCSoft for PC and mobile platforms.
This ongoing struggle in the live-service space raises questions about the allocation of resources within Sony’s first-party studios. Many observers lament the potential for numerous traditional single-player or co-op experiences that could have been delivered had Sony not invested heavily in chasing the potentially lucrative, but ultimately elusive, live-service model.
While the future of Horizon Hunters Gathering hangs in the balance, with its fate resting on the upcoming milestone evaluation, the gaming world watches to see if Fairgame$, another upcoming live-service title, will finally deliver the blockbuster success Sony has been desperately seeking in this competitive genre.
