Summary
Contrary to prior reporting, theHorizonMMO may not have been canceled after all. Many of PlayStation’s live-service projects have been axed in recent years, and rumors claimed that the purportedHorizonMMO being developed by South Korean studio NCSoft was the latest addition to this list. However, a new development suggests that theHorizonMMO is safe, at least for now.
One of the many upcoming projects based on theHorizonIP is rumored to be a live-service MMORPG. TheHorizonMMO is supposedly a collaboration between PlayStation and NCSoft, the developer behind MMORPGs likeGuild Wars 2,Blade and Soul, andGenesis, and has been in development since late 2022. While neither company has announced or made any mention of theHorizonMMO, some of NCSoft’s previous job listings mentioned work on a game codenamedProject Skyline. The illustration forProject Skylinewas made with the exact font used for theHorizonlogo, indirectly confirming the game’s affiliation with the franchise.
The status of theHorizonMMO’s development recently fell into questionafter a report alleged that NCSoft’s financial woes had resulted in the cancelation of several of its upcoming games, including one dubbedProject H. At the time, many assumed thatProject Hwas theHorizonMMO and believed it was no longer in development. However, Seo Jeong-geun, the journalist who reported on the NCSoft cancelations, has now clarified in arecent emailthatProject Hhad “nothing to do withHorizon.” Therefore, it seems the Horizon MMO is still in the works.
Horizon MMO Apparently Not Canceled, Previously-Rumored Project H Was a Separate Game
ConsideringPlayStation canceled two live-service projectsfrom first-party teams Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games just last week, it’s understandable why many presumed that development on theHorizonMMO was discontinued. During the initial years of the PS5 generation, PlayStation had lofty ambitions of releasing 10 live-service games by 2026, but many of them, including Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Us Onlineproject, ended up shelved. Moreover, the disastrous failure ofConcordlast year has reportedly led to PlayStation taking a long, hard look at the remaining live-service titles it has in the pipeline.
While theHorizonMMO is one of the few PlayStation live-service projects that have evaded cancelation (for now), it’s interestingly not the onlyHorizonlive-service project in development.Guerrilla Games has long been working on aHorizonco-op multiplayer game, which is rumored to be the studio’s next release and may launch in 2025. Given that theHorizonMMO has only been in development for around two years, it’ll likely release around the end of the PS5’s life cycle. Whenever it does, though, it should be interesting to see how different theHorizonMMO and co-op game look.
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.
