PlayStation is reportedly rebooting Horizon Hunters Gathering following negative feedback from private playtests, with Guerrilla Games now planning a smaller-scale cooperative multiplayer experience instead of a traditional live-service game.
According to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, Guerrilla has been working on the reboot since June after players responded poorly to the project’s earlier version during private testing. The revised plan is said to remove the live-service component and focus on traditional cooperative multiplayer, including a story mode and a significantly reduced scope.
The project has not been cancelled, but its future reportedly remains uncertain. According to people familiar with Sony’s plans, Guerrilla staff were told during a meeting on Wednesday that the team will have until December to demonstrate progress to executives through another major development milestone.
A substantial number of developers working on Horizon Hunters Gathering are also expected to move to another project, which will itself be evaluated towards the end of the year. PlayStation declined to comment on the report.
Horizon 3 Is Still A Long Way Off
The reported changes could also have implications for the future of the wider Horizon franchise. Schreier said on Bluesky that “almost all of Guerrilla Games has been working on Horizon Hunters Gathering for the last few years, and the next mainline single-player Horizon game is still far, far away.”
This suggests that Horizon 3 remains some distance from release, with Guerrilla’s resources having been heavily focused on the multiplayer project.
The reported reboot also represents another setback for PlayStation’s broader live-service strategy. Sony previously planned a major expansion into games as a service, but has since reduced the number of projects following several cancellations and the commercial failure of Concord.
The company has cancelled or scaled back several multiplayer projects, including The Last of Us Online, while Helldivers 2 remains a major success for the strategy. Horizon Hunters Gathering now appears to be another project being reshaped as Sony reassesses its approach to live-service games.
