PlayStation's Horizon co-op spin-off is being stripped of its live-service elements after playtest feedback

Sony

Guerrilla Games' co-op Horizon spin-off, Hunters Gathering, is undergoing a significant overhaul after private playtests went badly, with plans to remove the game's live-service components and cut its scope down to something far more traditional.

The details:

Hunters Gathering was announced in February 2026 as a tactical co-op action game set in the Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West universe. The rework has reportedly been underway since June following ill-received internal testing.
The plan is to strip out live-service elements and rebuild the game as a more conventional co-op experience with a story mode. Bloomberg first reported the overhaul.
The project is not cancelled, but the team has been given until December to demonstrate to PlayStation executives that it warrants continued development. A number of developers have already been reassigned to a separate project, which is also facing its own end-of-year evaluation.
The news is another retreat from live-service ambitions for PlayStation, which has pulled back significantly since the failure of Concord in 2025. Sony has been reassessing which live-service projects are worth the investment following a string of costly misfires.

Working in games and exploring what's next? Keep your options open with a Free Hitmarker Profile.