Sony’s Horizon series was always thought about as a multiplayer game, says studio head, following MMO announcement

Despite being one of PlayStation’s most prolific single-player series, developer Guerrilla Games has “always thought about” its Horizon franchise “as a multiplayer game”.

That’s coming from Guerrilla Games’ studio head, Jan-Bart van Beek, who was resharing yesterday’s announcement post about Horizon’s spin-off MMO, Steel Frontiers. “From the first moment we imagined Horizon, we always thought about it as a multiplayer game,” van Beek shared on social media.

The studio exec added that last year’s Lego Horizon Adventures, which told a brickified version of Aloy’s initial outing in Zero Dawn, was the studio’s “first small step” into Horizon’s multiplayer offerings.

“With Steel Frontiers we’re taking a bigger one,” the Guerrilla developer furthered, before adding there is “much more to come”.

Following Steel Frontiers’ announcement yesterday, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier stated NCSoft’s Horizon game is different from Guerrilla’s own multiplayer release, which is currently said to be in development at the studio. “That one is Guerrilla’s next big project,” Schreier said.

As for Horizon Steel Frontiers, it’s coming from NCSoft, though Guerrilla has collaborated with the studio. Steel Frontiers is described as a “fierce survival adventure”, in which players take on the role of machine hunters in a region known as Deathlands. The team promises “large-scale raids” and an “advanced combat system”. The upcoming MMO is poised for PC and mobile, with no mention of a PlayStation release.

Earlier this year, it was announced that PlayStation and Guerrilla’s Horizon franchise had surpassed 38m copies sold. The news came as part of Sony’s filed legal complaint against Tencent, where the company accused the Chinese technology conglomerate of ripping off its Horizon video game franchise with Light of Motiram.