Horizon Hunters Gathering Is Not Fun So PlayStation Plans To Reboot It
PlayStation’s bet on live service suffered another blow today as Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reports that Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Hunters Gathering is struggling and is about to be rebooted. It doesn’t come as a surprise, given that the last few playtests have been met with little enthusiasm.
Guerrilla Games is just one of many single-player studios tasked with making it successful. We’ve seen Sony, in the last six years, try to bring Spider-Man, The Last of Us, God of War, Twisted Metal, and more single-player games to live service, and all of them being cancelled before even launching. And let’s not forget how badly Concord fared.
– Concord- Live service Spider-Man- Live service The Last of Us – Live service God of War- Live service Twisted Metal- Live service game from Jason Blundell- Live service game from Deviation- Live service game from BendThe cancelled GaaS projects from PlayStation paint a staggering picture
— Steve Vegvari 🔜 Gamescom (@svegvari.bsky.social) 2026-08-19T13:30:47.268Z
I’ve yet to see a single-player studio successfully pivot to multiplayer. It’s happened before, but it’s incredibly rare, and few have the resources necessary to support a game long-term.
Horizon Hunters Gathering is now switching gears and moving away from live service elements. The team was told earlier today that the change was happening and that they have until December “to impress executives with their next milestone”. Developers on the project will be reassigned from Horizon Hunters Gathering, which will be evaluated at the end of 2026. Schreirer indicates that the team has been working on rebooting the gam since June and now leans into a “traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode and a far smaller scope.”
The game lets up to three players team up as Hunters to stop machines from taking over. Combat is “tactical, reactive, and deeply skill-based,” building on the Horizon experience while adding dynamic team play.
PlayStation has thrown a ton of resources at live service games for years now, but they keep falling flat. Understandably, when a live service game connects with an audience, it can find a lot of lucrative payoff. However, there are far too many games in the market and not enough people to play them.
Sony’s bread and butter has been single-player narrative games for almost two decades. It’s what drew millions upon millions of users into the ecosystem, yet Sony’s purchase of developer Bungie for $3.6 billion has not panned out. This year marks the end of Destiny 2, as well.
