In a significant development for one of PlayStation’s most beloved franchises, Sony has reportedly ordered a major overhaul of an upcoming cooperative game set in the Horizon universe following overwhelmingly negative feedback from playtesters. According to a report from Bloomberg, developers at Guerrilla Games are now scrambling to transform what was originally conceived as a live service title into a more traditional cooperative experience with narrative elements and reduced scope. The Dutch studio, known for creating the critically acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel Forbidden West, now faces a crucial December deadline to convince Sony executives that the project is worth continuing.
The game in question, internally known as Horizon Hunters Gathering, was originally designed as a live service cooperative action experience where players would team up as stylized heroes to battle the franchise’s iconic mechanical creatures. However, the three playtests conducted earlier this year yielded disappointing results, with participants expressing dissatisfaction with the game’s direction. Compounding these challenges, one of the playtests unfortunately coincided with Bungie’s Marathon server stress test, potentially dividing the attention of the target audience that Sony was hoping to attract. Rather than immediately canceling the project—a fate that has befallen numerous other Sony live service ventures—the company has granted Guerrilla Games a final opportunity to reimagine the game entirely.
Sony’s Troubled History with Live Service Games
The decision to pivot Horizon Hunters Gathering comes amid a broader pattern of Sony abandoning live service projects across its first-party studios. In recent years, the gaming giant has quietly terminated live service spinoffs based on some of its most valuable intellectual properties, including God of War, The Last of Us, and Spider-Man. These cancellations represent hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs and reflect the company’s growing uncertainty about its ability to compete in the live service market. The most spectacular failure came with Concord, a hero shooter developed by Firewalk Studios that launched in August 2024 to catastrophically low player numbers, forcing Sony to take the unprecedented step of pulling the game from sale and issuing refunds within weeks of release.
The Concord debacle appears to have fundamentally altered Sony’s approach to the live service space. What was once viewed as a crucial growth area for the company—executives had previously announced plans to release twelve live service games by 2026—now seems to be an area of retreat. Adding to Sony’s live service woes, the company’s acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion has proven complicated, with Destiny 2 experiencing significant player decline and the studio undergoing multiple rounds of layoffs. Currently, only Helldivers 2, developed by Swedish studio Arrowhead Game Studios, and the annually released MLB The Show franchise represent successful live service operations under the PlayStation umbrella.
Guerrilla Games Shifts Focus Back to Single-Player
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the majority of developers previously assigned to Horizon Hunters Gathering have already been reassigned to other projects within Guerrilla Games. Most notably, a dedicated team is now working on the next single-player entry in the Horizon series, suggesting that Sony recognizes where the franchise’s true strengths lie. The original Horizon Zero Dawn, released in 2017, captivated players with its unique post-apocalyptic setting where robotic animals roam a world reclaimed by nature, and protagonist Aloy’s journey to uncover her origins. The game sold over 24 million copies and established the Horizon IP as one of PlayStation’s premier franchises.
The sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, continued this success upon its 2022 release, earning praise for its expanded world and refined gameplay mechanics. A standalone expansion, Burning Shores, followed in 2023, demonstrating the ongoing appetite for narrative-driven Horizon content. Industry analysts have noted that the franchise’s strength lies in its storytelling and world-building—elements that often struggle to translate effectively into live service frameworks, which typically prioritize repeatable gameplay loops over structured narratives. The decision to potentially pivot Hunters Gathering toward a story-driven cooperative experience suggests Sony may be acknowledging this fundamental tension.
Uncertain Future for Remaining Sony Live Service Projects
Beyond Horizon Hunters Gathering, questions linger about the fate of Sony’s other live service ventures. Fairgames, a heist-themed multiplayer game being developed by Haven Studios—a company founded by former Ubisoft and EA executive Jade Raymond and acquired by Sony in 2022—has been conspicuously absent from public discussion since its announcement in 2023. Reports from Insider Gaming in April suggested that the development team was struggling to make the game engaging in its pre-alpha state, raising concerns about whether it will ever reach the market. The pattern of Sony live service games entering development, consuming significant resources, and ultimately being canceled has become troublingly familiar to industry observers.
For Guerrilla Games, the December milestone represents a pivotal moment that could determine the future direction of one of PlayStation’s most valuable studios. Success would demonstrate that the Horizon franchise can expand beyond its single-player roots while still delivering the quality experiences fans expect. Failure would likely result in another canceled project added to Sony’s growing list of abandoned live service ambitions, and would potentially reinforce the narrative that PlayStation’s strengths lie in crafted, story-driven experiences rather than ongoing multiplayer services. As the gaming industry continues to debate the sustainability of the live service model, Sony’s decisions in the coming months may provide important lessons about the limits of applying this approach to established single-player franchises.
Expert Opinion: Sony’s retreat from live service gaming represents a significant strategic recalibration that could reshape the entire AAA gaming landscape. The company’s willingness to give Guerrilla Games one final chance, rather than immediately canceling the project, suggests executives are seeking a middle ground—perhaps smaller-scale cooperative experiences that don’t require the massive ongoing investment of traditional live service titles. Expect Sony to increasingly leverage third-party partnerships for multiplayer ventures while refocusing first-party studios on the cinematic single-player experiences that built the PlayStation brand.
