Horizon Hunters Gathering is Sony’s new PlayStation live service bet

So this is what Guerilla Games, the development studio behind the PlayStation Horizon franchise, has been up to since the cross-gen Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Call of the Mountain for the PS VR2: Horizon Hunters Gathering is a third-person action co-op title set in the same world, but built from the ground up as a live service game. It is also what most PlayStation gamers probably did not expect at this point from Sony, even if it seems carefully crafted and exciting enough.

As one would expect of a Horizon title, its gameplay revolves around taking down mechanical dinosaurs of all types and sizes – but, this time, doing it as a team of up to three characters called Hunters, each with its own unique weapons and fighting style. The announcing video below features six totally different ones – no, Aloy is not one of them – and more “will be added over time”, in true live service fashion. It’s not yet clear whether players will be able to create their own Hunters, but they will be able to tune their characters’ arsenal and overall abilities to their liking through an extensive progression system.

What makes Horizon Hunters Gathering immediately stand out is its visual design, which is a clear departure from the texture-heavy, ultra-detailed graphics of both Horizon titles on the PS4/PS5. This one looks a lot more like Fortnite: lower-poly and stylized, with rough lines and bright colors, exaggerated animation and the kind of arcadey control many recent hero shooters, like Marvel Rivals, go for. It’s a look that’s both beautiful to behold and smart in technical terms, as in such titles full-screen action tends to get frantic very fast, very often.

There will be four different biomes available to players at launch, each one with its own environmental challenges – again, more will be added in the future – and a social hub where players can meet other players, upgrade their weapons or just hang out and chill. There will be “a narrative campaign to follow” across a high number of missions (but new stories to be added to it over time too) and multiple gameplay modes will offer the kind of variety that keeps players coming back, Guerilla promised. The announcement video showed off two such modes, Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent, with more coming at a later date.

The title is still deep in development, but there’ll be a closed playtest through the PlayStation Beta program at the end of February so that gamers can get a sense of what Guerilla is going for and the studio receive its first feedback on the game. It’s not clear whether Horizon Hunters Gathering only supports online multiplayer or local co-op is offered too, as it’s not clear whether its a free-to-play or traditionally priced title. What is clear is that it’ll be out for the PS5 and PC at the same time, supporting both cross-play and cross progression.

As far as live service games go, Horizon Hunters Gathering could end up being one of the most interesting examples in recent memory: it seems like it can be truly enjoyable when played with people who know what they’re doing and value teamwork, it’s different enough from other PvE titles and its structure allows for serious expansion in terms of gameplay (the world and backstory of Horizon are rich enough to support this long-term). Guerilla’s eye for detail is also evident everywhere in the announcement video – an encouraging sign.

Having said that, it’s hard to ignore that Sony has not been exactly successful in its PlayStation live service efforts so far – Helldivers 2 being the exception here – and that this type of game is still one of the hardest to get right and keep fresh for a long time. The PlayStation crowd loves Horizon games – they’ve sold over 40 million copies across formats to date – so many players will give this a shot, but it’s up to Guerilla to convince them that Horizon Hunters Gathering is worth their time and effort in a market already offering a number of popular live service games for free. Will it be easy? No. But it can still be done – so let’s keep an eye on it for now, yes?