Leaks have claimed for a while that an open world multiplayer co-op Horizon game is in development at Guerrilla, and now the developer itself seems to be confirming that- well, kind of. As spotted by YouTuber JorRaptor over on Twitter, Guerrilla has a number of job listings up on its website that all very explicitly confirm that the studio is working on a co-op Horizon title.
For starters, all of these listings confirm in their very titles that they pertain to an online project- but that’s not all. For instance, the Lead Quest Designer listing describes the game as an “ambitious, unannounced project”, and confirms that the developer is working to “bring the expanding Horizon universe to a multiplayer audience.”
Interestingly, going by the Senior Character Combat Designer listing, the game will also feature multiple unique playable characters. “Guerrilla is looking for an experienced and passionate Senior Combat Designer to help create playable characters that are fun and memorable to play in combat,” the listing reads, before also mentioning “unique abilities that are exciting to execute, offer tactical choices, and create cooperative opportunities, for multiple player characters.”
Then there’s the Senior Machine Combat Designer listing, which is really as Horizon as it gets. “Guerrilla is looking for an experienced and passionate Senior Combat Designer to help create variety of Machine enemies that are spectacular, challenging and memorable to fight cooperatively,” the ad reads. It also goes on to add that the applicant for the position will also “design, change, and update behaviors of existing iconic machines of the Horizon franchise”, in addition to designing “new machines”. Additionally, the Lead Combat Designer listing suggests the game will also have humanoid enemies.
Meanwhile, as many would have expected, it seems like the co-op title is still going to be an open world game, and will continue to place an emphasis on storytelling. The Principal Writer listing reads: “Our writers are driven to push the boundaries of dramatic storytelling in open-world games. We want players to feel hooked by our quests and characters, to enjoy dialogue that crackles, and to savor our stories long after they put down the controller.”
At this point, there should be little doubt in anybody’s mind that a co-op Horizon game is indeed in the works, and is moving full steam ahead. As for how long it’ll be before Guerrilla and Sony are ready to officially reveal the title, that remains to be seen.
Even so, fans of the series till have plenty to look forward to, even in the coming months. Horizon Call of the Mountain will launch for PS VR2 as launch title for the headset on February 22, while the recently-announced expansion, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, will release on April 19 (though only for PS5, unlike the cross-gen base experience). Meanwhile, reports have claimed that a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn is also in the works.