Summary
Guerrilla Games’Horizonmultiplayer spin-off may not release during the current console generation. Instead, some newly emerged evidence indicates that the upcomingHorizongame is targeting a PS6 release.
The still-unnamedHorizonmultiplayer game was confirmed to be in the worksat the December 2022 edition of The Game Awards. Little else has been shared about the project ever since, with Guerrilla only sporadically reaffirming that the work on it continues.
Horizon Multiplayer Spin-Off May Skip the PS5
Since the game was announced just two years following the PS5’s release, around the time when Sony finally managed to resolve the console’s pandemic-induced global shortages, it was widely assumed to be targeting the current-generation system. But that may have not been the case, or the initial plan changed in the meantime, as suggested by a recently publicized job ad for a principal producer at Guerrilla. The listing, reviewed by Game Rant, describes a role on a project that seeks to deliver a “next-gen online experience.” Of all theHorizongames that are currently confirmed or rumored to be in the worksat the Dutch studio, that description only matches the upcoming multiplayer spin-off.
Since the PS5 is pushing four nowadays, it’s somewhat unlikely that this newly published ad would still be calling it a “next-gen” system if it were indeed referring to it. Taking the language of the listing at face value, it would appear that theHorizonmultiplayer spin-off is still years away from going gold, and may ultimately end up skipping the PS5. Such a turn of events would be consistent with recent macro trends in the industry, most notably the fact thatAAA game development cycles have been getting longerand more complex since the 2010s.
PS6 Projected To Be Targeting a 2028 Release
The next, tenth generation of consoles is currently projected to arrive in 2028. Sony itself recently reinforced that estimate, if only indirectly, when its CFO Hiroki Totoki said that thePS5 has entered “the latter half” of its life cycleas of early 2024. Regardless of the exact year when the next PlayStation console is planned to hit the market, historical precedent suggests that Sony will time its launch to coincide with the holiday season.
If theHorizonmultiplayer spin-off is indeed planned to skip the PS5, then there’s a chance thatHorizon 3could beat it to the market. The third mainline entry in the franchise was confirmed to be in development in May 2023. Guerrilla last mentioned the project in April 2024, when it said that the work on “Aloy’s next adventure” continues. In the meantime, another series spin-off in the form ofLEGO Horizon Adventuresis set to arrive in late 2024. South Korean gaming giant NCSoft is also rumored to be working on aHorizonMMO right now.
Horizon
The Horizon franchise follows Aloy as she is forced to contend with a series of powerful, towering robotic creatures in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The third-person action-RPG has already seen a sequel with Horizon: Forbidden West and gives players the freedom to explore the open world as they see fit.
