Horizon Hunters Gathering changes its skin: live service reportedly eliminated after tests
Guerrilla's co-op could arrive in a very different form than announced in February: project scaled down, greater emphasis on story, and a new evaluation expected by December.
Horizon Hunters Gathering may no longer be the game Guerrilla Games presented just six months ago. The cooperative Horizon spin-off has reportedly been scaled down and stripped of its live service component, to become a more traditional multiplayer accompanied by a story mode. The revision reportedly came after unconvincing results in player tests, according to a Bloomberg report picked up by VGC.
The change would be far from marginal. In the official announcement last February, Guerrilla described a cooperative action game for PS5 and PC built around replayable hunts for three players, characters with different combat styles, and roguelite progression. The project also included a canonical narrative campaign intended to continue beyond launch and the Gathering, a social hub where players could meet others, customize hunters, and upgrade equipment.
If the new report is confirmed, then, it would not simply be a matter of correcting a few systems after a beta: the very structure of Hunters Gathering would be changing.
Guerrilla had, after all, based its development on player feedback. After the first closed test in February, the studio explained on the PlayStation Blog that it had already implemented numerous changes based on the feedback received. A second playtest, organized from May 22 to 25, added new Hunters, a narrative mission called Episode, a new region, additional difficulty levels, and further character modifications.
The picture that emerged subsequently, however, would be much more drastic than a normal refinement phase. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the live service component is now being removed, while the game would be transformed into a more conventional co-op multiplayer, featuring a story mode and with overall smaller dimensions compared to previous plans.
The most delicate point, however, concerns what will happen in the coming months. Hunters Gathering has not been canceled, but staff have reportedly been given until December to demonstrate to PlayStation executives that the project deserves to remain in active development. “Many” of the developers currently assigned to the game are also reportedly destined for another project, which should also be evaluated by the end of the year.
Guerrilla and Sony have not publicly announced this revision. The removal of the live service, scaling down, and December review therefore remain information attributed to the report. What makes the situation significant is the contrast with what Guerrilla had officially shown: if that approach has indeed been abandoned, Hunters Gathering is undergoing a rethinking of its model, not a simple correction after playtests.