Horizon Hunters Gathering Scraps Live-Service Model After Failed Testing

Jason Schreier, journalist at Bloomberg, reports that Horizon Hunters Gathering, the multiplayer game in development at Guerrilla, is undergoing a major course correction. According to his sources, internal testing and feedback from external players proved negative enough to convince the studio to abandon its initial live-service orientation. A pivot of this magnitude, this early in the development cycle of a AAA project, is rare enough to warrant unsparing analysis.

Testing Delivered a Cold Dose of Reality

Every multiplayer project aimed at live service goes through testing phases before any broad public announcement. In the case of Hunters Gathering, these sessions reportedly sent a clear signal: the proposed format wasn't working. The specific complaints haven't been publicly documented yet, but the scale of Guerrilla's response—scrapping a monetization and content architecture that shapes an entire game's structure—indicates the problem ran deep. You don't overhaul an economic model because a few testers found the interface hard to read.

Live service isn't just a distribution method: it's a design philosophy that shapes gameplay loops, internal economy, progression pacing, and update frequency. Abandoning it mid-course means reworking vast portions of the game, potentially from scratch.

Guerrilla Grapples with a Single-Player Franchise's Legacy

The Horizon franchise built its reputation on two single-player games—Zero Dawn in 2017 and Forbidden West in 2022—that won over millions of players with the depth of their open worlds and storytelling. Transposing that universe into a multiplayer format structured as a service is a massive editorial gamble, separate from any technical execution quality.

BioWare's Anthem, launched in 2019 to growing indifference despite years in development, or Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in 2024, remind us that grafting a live model onto a single-player franchise's DNA is treacherous terrain. Players don't buy into a universe to watch it transform into a weekly grind treadmill. That Guerrilla recognized this lesson before launch rather than after demonstrates real clarity.

The broader context matters too. Sony Interactive Entertainment announced a slew of multiplayer games in 2022 and 2023 as part of an ambitious live-service strategy, then canceled several—including Twisted Metal online—when development phases yielded disappointing results. Arrowhead's Helldivers 2, which shipped in early 2024, remains the exception proving the format works when built for itself, not grafted onto existing IP.

Is Sony Finally Learning to Hit the Brakes?

If Hunters Gathering's pivot confirms what Schreier's scoop suggests, it signals Sony can now interrupt an expensive trajectory earlier in the process. That's a meaningful shift in internal culture, even as the human and financial costs of such mid-production reversals remain real and rarely discussed.

For players following Hunters Gathering since announcement, the question is straightforward: what replaces it? A multiplayer game without a live model can take many forms—full co-op experience at fixed price, single-access online game, or hybrid format with separately sold additional content. None of these paths is confirmed yet.

What's certain is that the launch date, already absent from any official communication, recedes further. Rebuilding a game vision around a new model takes time, and Guerrilla can't afford to ship a broken product under the pretense of emergency pivoting. Players hoping for multiplayer Horizon content soon will likely need to reset expectations to 2027 minimum.

A Market Signal the Industry Can't Ignore

Hunters Gathering joins a lengthening list: live-service games launched without a solid base of loyal players collapse quickly and cost heavily. Square Enix's Foamstars in 2024, Ubisoft's XDefiant shuttered in 2025 after less than a year—examples of multiplayer live projects that never found their audience despite massive investment keep piling up. The market is saturated, players are selective, and tolerance for thin launch content is zero.

Whether Guerrilla or Sony ultimately decided to apply the brakes matters less. What counts is that the signal sent is clear: live-service format is no longer a profitability guarantee, and even first-party studios with a giant's resources can't escape it. Hunters Gathering may have better odds abandoning this model than clinging to it—provided the new direction is chosen for creative reasons, not just to escape a format that's become toxic.