PlayStation is reportedly making major changes to Horizon Hunters Gathering after the upcoming Horizon multiplayer game received negative feedback during its closed playtests.
Guerrilla Games has already held two closed tests for Hunters Gathering, but according to a new report, the response wasn’t strong enough for development to continue in its current form.
Rather than canceling the project entirely, PlayStation and Guerrilla are reportedly rebooting the game with a smaller scope and moving away from its original live-service ambitions.
Horizon Hunters Gathering Could Drop Live-Service Elements
According to a report from Bloomberg, development on the rebooted version of Horizon Hunters Gathering has been underway since June.
Sources familiar with the project claim that feedback from closed playtests held earlier this year was largely negative, prompting Guerrilla and PlayStation to reconsider what the multiplayer game should actually be.
The biggest reported change is the removal of the game’s live-service component.
Instead of building Hunters Gathering around an ongoing live-service model, Guerrilla reportedly plans to transform it into a more traditional cooperative multiplayer experience.
The revised version is also expected to feature a story mode while operating on a considerably smaller overall scope than originally planned.
That would represent a substantial shift for the project, particularly as Hunters Gathering had been positioned as one of PlayStation’s remaining major attempts to expand its multiplayer portfolio.
Guerrilla Reportedly Has Until December to Prove the New Direction
Horizon Hunters Gathering hasn’t been canceled, but its future apparently isn’t completely secure either.
According to the report, the development team has been given until December 2026 to impress PlayStation executives with its next major development milestone.
Some developers currently working on Hunters Gathering are also expected to be reassigned to another project, with those staffing decisions set to be reevaluated toward the end of the year.
For now, that means development continues, but the next few months could prove crucial in determining whether the rebooted version ultimately moves forward.
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Another Blow to PlayStation’s Live-Service Strategy
The reported Horizon Hunters Gathering reboot would become another example of PlayStation scaling back its aggressive push into live-service games.
Several multiplayer projects connected to some of PlayStation’s biggest franchises have already been canceled during development, including projects involving The Last of Us, God of War, and Spider-Man.
Hunters Gathering isn’t the only multiplayer Horizon project currently in development, either.
NCSoft is developing Horizon Steel Frontiers, meaning Sony’s post-apocalyptic franchise could still have a substantial multiplayer future even if Guerrilla’s project changes dramatically.
The important distinction is that Horizon Hunters Gathering reportedly remains in development. Instead of abandoning it, Guerrilla appears to be attempting to reshape the project around the feedback received from players.
Whether that new cooperative, story-focused direction will be enough to satisfy PlayStation executives should become clearer following the team’s December milestone.
Would you prefer Horizon Hunters Gathering as a traditional co-op game instead of a live-service title? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
