PlayStation Is Reportedly Overhauling Live-Service Horizon Spin-Off Hunters Gathering Following Poor Playtest Feedback
Horizon Hunters Gathering, a live-service spin-off of Guerilla Games’ Horizon series, was announced earlier this year to mixed reception. While it retains worldbuilding elements from Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the genre and art style are completely changed, and anecdotally, it seemed to alienate more than it attracted. That was before anyone had played the game, however. According to a report from Bloomberg, playtest feedback has caused the developer to take a step back and reevaluate what the game should look like.
The report comes from Jason Schreier, a seasoned reporter in the video game space. He cites anonymous sources familiar with Hunters Gathering’s development, but who are not authorized to speak about it publicly. While Schreier’s reporting has a very strong track record for accuracy, PlayStation has yet to confirm or deny the facts in his article and declined to comment. Game Informer has also reached out for comment, and this article will be updated should we receive a reply.
“Following poor feedback in private testing earlier this year, the plan now is to strip out the live-service component and turn it into more of a traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode and a far smaller scope,” the Bloomberg article reads. While the game is not yet cancelled, Schreier’s sources indicate that the team has “through December to impress executives on their next milestone.” Many of the game’s developers are also being reassigned to a different project, to be evaluated at the end of the year.
This rework of Hunters Gathering is a kinder fate than other multiplayer PlayStation projects have received. Best known for its critically acclaimed single-player experiences, the Japanese gaming giant has spent the 2020s trying to expand into the online live-service market to little success. Multiplayer spin-offs of God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us were all canned before their proper reveals. Destiny 2 got its final update this year. Most infamously, Concord was shut down less than a week after its launch.
While PlayStation’s single-player games have fared better, fans of the Horizon series unfortunately have to wait a while for their next single-player outing as Aloy. According to Bloomberg, most of the Horizon Forbidden West team is working on Hunters Gathering, not the next mainline entry. “A tiny team has been plotting out the next single-player Horizon game but it remains years away from completion, according to the people familiar with the studio’s plans,” Schreier writes.
[Source: Bloomberg]
