Sony announced earlier this week that it would be laying off hundreds of staff members across the PlayStation business, including some team members at esteemed studios like Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games. With Guerrilla being hit, many were wondering if the long in-development Horizon multiplayer game had been cancelled, but it seems this is not the case.
Guerrilla Games has been experimenting with the idea of Horizon multiplayer since the franchise's inception. Code for multiplayer was found in both Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. However, these were small-scale experiments, rather than intended for release. Separately, Guerrilla Games has had another team working on a standalone Horizon multiplayer game, and more recently, a deal between Sony and NCSoft was forged, a partnership that is believed to involve a Horizon MMO.
Given that many other games have been cancelled in recent months due to layoffs, many wondered if Guerrilla Games' Horizon multiplayer game had suffered the same fate as Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Factions, but it seems that is not the case. Veteran games industry reporter, Jason Schreier, responded to questions about the project this week, stating that the multiplayer game has not been cancelled.
That doesn't mean plans won't change in the future, after all, Naughty Dog's standalone TLOU multiplayer game was in development for about four years before finally being scrapped. For now though, Horizon multiplayer is still in the works.
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KitGuru Says: A Horizon multiplayer game could be good but I do worry that it is going to be a somewhat standard survival affair, albeit with an interesting world and lore. We've yet to see anything of the game officially though, so we'll have to hang tight for more details.