PlayStation Reportedly Overhauls Horizon Co-op Game After Poor Testing Feedback

PlayStation is stripping the live-service elements from its Horizon co-op spin-off after the game tested poorly in private sessions, according to a Bloomberg report published on 19 August 2026.

Horizon Hunters Gathering, announced on the PlayStation Blog on 5 February 2026, is a tactical three-player co-op action game developed by Guerrilla — the Amsterdam studio behind Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Players team up as Hunters fighting machine creatures, either solo with AI companions or in co-op with other people. A small-scale closed playtest ran at the end of February, and a second followed on 22–25 May, adding two new Hunters and a playable episode.

The feedback was not kind. A first-impressions piece published the same day as the announcement by Forbes journalist Paul Tassi described the game as "questionable at best," with player concerns centring on its art style, characters, and gameplay design — all elements that would be costly to rework. According to Bloomberg's report, the game continued to underperform in private testing, prompting plans for a substantial overhaul. The live-service component — the model of selling a game and updating it in seasons after launch, often with ongoing monetisation — is being removed. The plan now is to turn the project into a more traditional co-op multiplayer game with a story mode and a smaller scope.

Bloomberg reported that the game has not been cancelled. Staff were told they have until December to show executives that it should remain in active development. Many team members assigned to the project will reportedly be moved to a different, separate game that is also set to be evaluated at the end of the year.

For PlayStation, the overhaul is the latest stumble in a live-service push that began in 2022, when the company announced its intention to develop ten live-service games. The results have been turbulent. Concord, a multiplayer shooter launched in 2024, was pulled from sale just two weeks after release. Earlier in 2026, Sony cancelled live-service projects in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, and closed Bluepoint entirely. Not every bet has failed — Helldivers 2 became a breakout hit, and Bungie's Marathon remains in active development. In June, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino told Japanese publication Famitsu that Sony will continue to back live-service games.

None of this has been officially confirmed by PlayStation or Guerrilla. The details come from people familiar with the company's plans, as reported by Bloomberg and relayed by VGC. PlayStation maintains a news page for Horizon Hunters Gathering covering playtests and updates, but no public statement has addressed the reported overhaul.

For fans of the Horizon universe, the practical effect is a longer wait and a different game than the one revealed in February. Whether the reworked version earns its place in PlayStation's lineup will depend on what the team can show by December.