Horizon Hunters Gathering Rebooted After Playtest Backlash

Guerrilla Games’ beleaguered multiplayer spin-off, Horizon Hunters Gathering, is apparently getting a reboot following bad feedback from private playtests. A new report said that the project is being revamped to drop its live-service elements and become a more typical cooperative multiplayer game with a stronger story focus.

The redesign has apparently been in the works since June after dismal reactions during private testing earlier this year. Guerrilla hasn’t canceled the project outright, but the studio has supposedly been given until December to provide a new milestone to PlayStation execs. That evaluation could determine the game's future in its current form.

We expect many of the developers now working on Horizon Hunters Gathering to move on to another project.

Although the details are unclear, the move has raised the notion that Guerrilla may finally be devoting more resources to the third major Horizon game, which has been anticipated for a long time. Guerrilla's single-player open-world series became a live-service multiplayer game with the release of the first Horizon Hunters Gathering, marking a significant transition for the brand.

However, its announcement met opposition from some members of the Horizon community, particularly over the visual direction it took and its perceived deviation from the tone and aesthetic of the core games. Additionally, the project became emblematic of PlayStation's overarching goal to focus on live-service games throughout its entire portfolio.

Because Sony anticipated that established brands could generate recurring revenue through multiplayer interactions, the company has already increased its spending on this strategy. Over time, that strategy has faced several major failures, including the cancellation of various projects and the suspension of Concord shortly after its introduction.

The biggest concern for Horizon fans is that the multiplayer project could affect the entire franchise. At the end of the game, which began in 2022, a few major risks were still hanging over the franchise. On the other hand, Guerrilla has not yet made a formal announcement about Horizon 3, despite more than five years passing.

The rumored reorganization may allow developers to focus on the next mainstream entry.

If Horizon 3 had followed a consistent five-year cycle without significant deviations, the game might have been nearly complete by 2027. It has been years since the franchise has provided a proper update on the next major episode that it would be releasing. Because of this, the changes to Hunters Gathering are more than a challenging multiplayer project; they may indicate a broader reevaluation of how Guerrilla intends to manage the Horizon brand.

The issue is whether the enhanced cooperative game will actually be made available to the public. Although a more compact, narrative-focused multiplayer game would better fit the series than the initial live-service idea, the project still needs to convince PlayStation executives it is significant enough to complete.

Even though Horizon Hunters Gathering is still going strong as of today, its very existence is becoming increasingly uncertain. The milestone in December may prove to be a defining moment for Guerrilla, possibly determining whether the project gets another chance or is added to the ever-growing list of PlayStation live-service goals that have been abandoned.