Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Guerrilla Games will reboot the online action game Horizon Hunters Gathering into a traditional cooperative multiplayer game following negative playtest feedback, according to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier.
Sources told Bloomberg that Guerrilla Games has been working to reboot the game since June, with the plan being to strip out the live service elements and turn it a more of a traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode and a “far smaller” scope.
While the game has not been cancelled, the studio reportedly told staff it has until December to impress executives with a turnaround. Many staff are also said to be moving to another project that will also be evaluated in December.
According to the report, while the majority of Guerrilla Games has been working on Horizon Hunters Gathering, a “tiny team” has been plotting out the next Horizon title, but it is currently “years away from completion.”
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Sony Interactive Entertainment’s failed efforts to turn traditionally single-player franchises into multiplayer games have “burned through hundreds of millions of dollars and years of development time.”
Horizon Hunters Gathering will be available for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.