Horizon Forbidden West – you won’t be hunting the machines alone this time around (pic: Sony)
Guerrilla Games has confirmed it’s making a ‘stylised’ Horizon multiplayer spin-off, after job listings for it were spotted.
There have been rumblings of Horizon series developer Guerrilla Games working on a multiplayer project since 2019.
More detailed rumours popped up in the last few months, claiming said multiplayer game was related to the Horizon games and was an MMO, albeit one in development at Guild Wars studio NCSoft.
While there’s still yet to be a formal reveal, Guerrilla Games has admitted to the project’s existence and shared some brief details about what can be expected from it.
Rather than being described as an MMO, the Horizon multiplayer game is classified simply as an ‘online project’ that’s being handled by a new internal team within Guerrilla, with no mention of any outside help from NCSoft or others.
Guerrilla adds that the game will feature brand new characters and a ‘unique stylised look,’ which suggests that it won’t boast photorealistic visuals like the previous games.
There’s obviously no release window, but it’s likely not coming out for a very long time. In fact, Guerrilla’s acknowledgement of it comes via a call for new hires.
The studio has openings for multiple positions on the online game, including combat designers for player characters and the machine enemies, writers, and artists.
As for why it decided to lift the lid on the game so early, it was possibly in response to those job postings being spotted on Guerrilla’s website. There’s a long history of job ads revealing games and details that developers haven’t yet announced publicly, and yet studios never seem to learn.
The listings for combat designers mention ‘creative cooperative opportunities’ for players and that machine enemies need to ‘provide variety of challenges against multiple players.’
This points to the Horizon multiplayer game being more of a co-operative experience where players track down and hunt the various types of machines that populate Horizon’s world.
The best point of comparison may be something like Monster Hunter. Considering that franchise’s popularity, it makes sense for Sony to want to emulate it, as EA already is with its new Wild Hearts game.
The next question is whether the game will be free-to-play or not. Chances are it will be, considering Sony is eager to have 10 live service titles out by 2026 and this is probably one of them.
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Guerrilla’s tweet also mentions that it’s still working on ‘epic solo adventures for Aloy,’ which is likely referring to the upcoming (and PlayStation 5 exclusive) Burning Shores DLC for Horizon Forbidden West.
The reveal trailer didn’t show any gameplay, but it will continue the main game’s story as Aloy travels to what remains of Los Angeles.
There is also the VR spin-off, Horizon Call Of The Mountain (which Guerrilla is co-developing with Firesprite), and the inevitable third game that Forbidden West’s creative director all but confirmed in April.
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Guerrilla Games has confirmed it’s making a ‘stylised’ Horizon multiplayer spin-off, after job listings for it were spotted.
