Sony Reportedly Reboots Horizon Hunters Gathering After Poor Feedback From Internal Testing

Horizon Hunters Gathering faces a major overhaul after negative testing, creating fresh concerns about Sony’s struggling live-service strategy.

Sony’s live-service aspirations have suffered another huge blow, as Guerrilla Games is supposedly retooling Horizon Hunters Gathering after getting bad feedback in internal tests. Sony is struggling to build a sustainable live-service portfolio and is retooling the multiplayer initiative, which received a lukewarm welcome when it was first unveiled.

Fans were already questioning who the game’s real target audience is and asking questions about Horizon Hunters Gathering. Horizon has had a lot of releases, expansions, and remasters in the past few years, but the new project seems to want to take the franchise in a completely new direction. Its style of presentation and multiplayer focus had caused a lot of suspicion before its release.

Guerrilla has been working on a remake since June after the game drew unfavorable feedback during private testing earlier this year, according to people familiar with Sony’s intentions. The aim now is to strip out a lot of the live-service element, making the project more of a standard co-op multiplayer experience with a limited scope and story mode.

The game has not officially been canceled, but it is said that the next important milestone will determine the future of the game. Guerrilla personnel have until December to win over Sony executives, and some of the developers working on the game are expected to be reassigned to another project, which itself will be reviewed around the same time of year.

The Horizon Hunters Gathering is another red flag for Sony’s live-service ambitions.

It’s an example of the obstacles Sony has faced in moving away from its traditional single-player strategy. PlayStation was said to have over a dozen live-service games in the works for the next decade, though the company has since tempered its expectations thanks to cancelations, delays, and studio closures.

Helldivers 2 is the initiative’s most clear-cut success story, proving that Sony can still appeal to an audience with an online-focused product. The general approach, however, has been far less successful, with projects associated with franchises like God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us seemingly being canceled.

Sony bought Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022 in hopes that the Destiny studio would help bolster its live-service portfolio significantly. Ever since then, Bungie has had to deal with some serious hurdles, including layoffs and project delays, adding to the weight of Sony’s multiplayer strategy.

You can very much feel the difference from the PlayStation 4 days. Most of Sony's success has been built on the back of narrative-driven single-player games, which helped the PS4 sell over 117 million units. The company has tried to bring a number of those franchises to multiplayer this generation, with some success.

Guerrilla’s next single-player Horizon game might be years away from completion.

For fans of Horizon, the most immediate question is what the project means for the franchise’s traditional single-player games. Reports are that the majority of Guerrilla has been working on Horizon's Gathering for the previous few years, with only a small team working on the next mainstream Horizon release.

That means the next single-player Horizon game is still in early development and could take years to make. The insider makes it clear that the project is “still far, far away," suggesting fans should not expect a new major episode anytime soon.

Those hoping that Horizon 3 might follow up on Horizon Forbidden West soon enough would be disappointed. Guerrilla hasn’t poured all its resources into wrapping up Aloy’s story, instead spending most of its time on a multiplayer title that’s now under consideration.

The more serious criticism is that Sony’s focus on recurring revenue may have come at the expense of the first-party titles that made PlayStation special. Games like God of War, Spider-Man, Bloodborne, Horizon, and The Last of Us were helping to build a strong identity around premium single-player experiences during the PS4 generation.

Sony’s commitment to live services could be hindering the single-player games that its customers desire.

That strategy doesn’t work as reliably in the PS5 generation. Lots of projects have been shelved, and big corporations have spent years on multiplayer projects that eventually failed to get to market. The presumption is that Sony has had a hard time keeping up a steady first-party release schedule that helped set last generation apart.

The situation has also led to mounting criticism of the leadership of PlayStation Studios. The transcript references an opinion post that claims Hermen Hulst should be under even more scrutiny after years of cancelations, live-service flops, and development mistakes. At the same time, PlayStation is still putting out successful titles and is in good financial shape, the insider said.

The Horizon Hunters Gathering is still alive and kicking for now, but December could be the make-or-break month. And if the altered version isn’t what Sony execs are looking for, the project could be scrapped. Meanwhile, Guerrilla’s next single-player Horizon title seems to be years away, which raises worries over whether Sony would rethink its live-service plans before the PS6 generation arrives.