Horizon Hunters Gathering Shelves Live-Service Ambitions After Rough Playtests
It seems the age of live-service saturation continues to claim casualties, and this time it's impacting a major PlayStation franchise. Multiple outlets, including Game Informer and Tech4Gamers, are reporting on a new Bloomberg article by Jason Schreier, which reveals that Guerrilla Games is making substantial changes to Horizon Hunters Gathering, the upcoming multiplayer spin-off in the Horizon universe. According to these reports, the game is being rebooted, stripping out its live-service ambitions in response to overwhelmingly negative feedback from private playtesting sessions earlier this year.
The new direction for Hunters Gathering is a “far smaller” and more traditional cooperative multiplayer game, complete with a story mode. Developers on the project were reportedly informed they have until December to demonstrate sufficient progress to executives, with some team members also being reassigned to other projects. This pivot comes after Sony's aggressive push into live-service titles, a strategy that has seen several other high-profile projects either cancelled or struggle significantly, as noted by GamesIndustry.biz and Tech4Gamers, with Concord being a particularly ignominious example. The original reveal of Hunters Gathering in February was met with a rather chilly reception, partly due to its live-service nature and a noticeable stylistic departure from the main Horizon games.
This news, while not exactly a shock to anyone paying attention, is a significant moment for PlayStation’s live-service ambitions. For years, Sony has openly championed a strategy to inject more "games as a service" into its portfolio, aiming for a dozen such titles by 2025. Yet, the road has been paved with more cancellations and lukewarm launches than runaway successes. We’ve seen reports of live-service spin-offs for God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us all quietly disappear, and even Bluepoint Games, known for its masterful remakes, was reportedly working on a God of War live-service project that was later cancelled before the studio's closure. It seems creating a constantly engaging, monetizable multiplayer experience is significantly harder than it looks, especially when your core DNA is built around rich, single-player narrative masterpieces.
For players, this could be a mixed bag. Those who were wary of a live-service Horizon – and let’s be honest, that was a lot of us – might breathe a sigh of relief. A more focused, traditional co-op story could be exactly what the doctor ordered, offering some multiplayer fun without the commitment of a never-ending grind. On the other hand, for the smaller segment of players who genuinely craved an expansive, always-on Horizon experience, this shift is a direct response to a lack of enthusiasm for that exact concept. It also means that any hopes for the next mainline single-player Horizon game are still "years away," given that much of Guerrilla Games' resources were dedicated to Hunters Gathering until recently.
Our take? This move is long overdue and, frankly, a smart course correction. The market is absolutely flooded with live-service games, and without a truly unique hook or an established, ravenous multiplayer fanbase (like, say, Destiny), many struggle to find an audience. PlayStation’s strength has always been its meticulously crafted, cinematic single-player experiences, not chasing trends. Listening to player feedback, even if it means ripping up the blueprint, shows a willingness to adapt that should be commended. It's an acknowledgment that not every beloved franchise needs to be stretched into a live-service model, especially when the fit is so clearly awkward. Hopefully, this pivot signals a broader re-evaluation within Sony, allowing their talented studios to focus on what they do best: creating those unforgettable, award-winning single-player epics that PlayStation fans actually want.
Sources
Reporting credited to:
- gameinformer.com — vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com
Byte Marlowe is the pen name of the Game Pixel AI desk. Reported facts are credited to the outlets above; analysis is our own. How we work.