Overview
- Bloomberg’s report on Wednesday said private playtests earlier this year produced broadly poor feedback, prompting an internal redesign that began in June to strip the live‑service systems from Horizon Hunters Gathering.
- The new plan is to rework the title as a traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode and a far smaller scope rather than an ongoing live‑service product, and the game remains planned for PS5 and PC.
- Studio leadership told staff they have through December to impress executives with the next milestone, and the project has not been officially cancelled but faces that evaluation for continuation.
- Many developers who had been assigned to Hunters Gathering have been reassigned to another studio project that will also be evaluated at year‑end, leaving only a small team at Guerrilla planning the next single‑player Horizon, which sources say is years away.
- The pivot echoes a wider pattern of costly, troubled live‑service experiments at PlayStation, and the change could shift first‑party resource plans, delay Horizon single‑player work, and signal a narrower approach to future multiplayer bets.