The company didn’t really reveal any reason behind its decision to push the title’s release back to the first half of 2027, aside from noting that it will be joining other planned releases for the year that include Defect, Astrae Oratio, and Bonfire, among others. The fact that the company has fairly crowded plans for 2026 might have played a role in this, with titles like Cinder City and Time Takers slated for release in the second half of this year.

Horizon Steel Frontiers was officially unveiled back in November 2025, nearly two years after NCSoft and Sony had announced their strategic partnership. The MMORPG is being developed for PC, iOS, and Android. A PS5 release is conspicuous by its absence, especially since Horizon is one of Sony’s tentpole first-party franchises. In a statement, executive producer Lee Song clarified that NCSoft has “no reason” not to target the console. The decision, however, lies with Sony.

The MMORPG is slated to feature “unique, original gameplay elements” that revolve around taking down giant machines. An example provided of such gameplay elements involves making use of a Pullcaster to climb onto the machines after having destroyed a specific part. Players will also be able to set traps on damaged parts, and even inflict status afflictions.

“In Horizon Steel Frontiers, every player is a hero,” said executive producer Sung-Gu Lee. “We’ve put great care into customization, allowing you to fully express your individuality—even down to the smallest details. During character creation, we’ve incorporated the tribes from the original Horizon world.”

Interestingly, Horizon Steel Frontiers is being developed using Unreal Engine 5 rather than the franchise’s traditional Decima Engine. In an interview, Lee spoke about working closely with Guerrilla Games to develop the title, since the studio has quite a bit of technical expertise.

“We worked closely with Guerrilla to make sure we preserved the visual fidelity of the original, while creating gameplay that feels unique to Steel Frontiers,” he said. “Leveraging Unreal Engine 5’s powerful graphics capabilities, we’re able to deliver breathtaking visuals and smooth multiplayer experiences across both mobile and PC.”

Horizon Steel Frontiers isn’t the only multiplayer game based on the franchise currently in the works; February saw the unveiling of the Guerrilla Games-developed Horizon Hunters Gathering – a co-op game taking place in the Horizon universe that is being developed for PC and PS5. The title features a more stylistic look, and will revolve around two game modes – Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent.

Horizon Hunters Gathering has been made available through a number of closed playtests, with the most recent one being held from May 22nd to May 25th across both PC and PS5. It doesn’t yet have a solid release date.

The gameplay is chock full of familiar Machines, one of which (a Stalker) is at Shadow’s side. However, it looks like she’s deadly enough on her own as she puts her sword to efficient use with sweeping strikes and stabs that look primed to tear through armor plating on even the most pesky Machines. She decimates a pack of Watchers with bolts that don’t even let them get close enough for a slam, and takes down Longlegs and Thunderjaws without even batting an eye, and it’s a glorious sight to behold.

We’re especially curious if we might get to see more of her outside of Hunters Gathering, what with its main narrative being totally canon and all. Let’s hope she joins Aloy’s fight at some point, and that she’s a part of that adventure whenever it gets here (which unfortunately isn’t soon enough, according to rumors).

Check her out in action below as the next closed playtest for Horizon Hunters Gathering runs from May 22nd to 25th on PC and PS5.

It includes feedback from the previous closed test alongside two additional playable Hunters – Ensa, who wields a massive cane hook, and Shadow – yes, Shadow – who has a saber and can call in a Stalker machine to help out. While they’ll receive more details “in the coming weeks,” there’s also a new region, Breakers’ Bounty, to explore and a new Episode from the campaign, which sees players venturing to Ashwater Valley.

Machine Incursion includes new Hard and Merciless difficulty modes, the latter seemingly throwing a Thunderjaw and Ravager at the team to battle at once. Cauldron Descent is also getting “even more challenging rooms to explore.” And to ensure better onboarding for players, you can now take the help of Hunter NPCs when playing solo in either the Episodes or Machine Incursion. They’ll even take up a spot if your team is missing a player, Monster Hunter Wilds-style.

Of course, Horizon Hunters Gathering is still very much in development, and there’s no concrete release date. Nevertheless, it’s shaping up into something – time will tell if it’s enough to buck Sony’s live-service curse.

When it came to choosing Decima, the most important of its aspects for Sakamoto was that it would support the technologies that Kojima Productions needed for its open-world games. Despite it being less accessible when compared with more commercial offerings, its strong runtime rendering analysis tools was a standout feature. He also noted that, while no engine tends to be the singular best choice, studios have to make their own decisions depending on their needs. For Kojima Productions, this was Decima.

“When we were considering adopting Decima, I had the opportunity to evaluate the engine directly,” Sakamoto explained. “It offered many of the capabilities needed to build an open-world game, and while some aspects are less immediately approachable than commercial engines, its runtime rendering analysis tools stood out. Being able to access such a rich set of data without relying on external tools is incredibly valuable. The development environment – built for large-scale, multi-disciplinary teams – also included features I had long hoped to implement in the engine I worked on previously. With all of that in mind, we decided to adopt Decima.”

“It has now been nearly ten years since we began using the engine. While no engine is the best choice in every scenario, Decima enables us to accomplish many things that would be difficult to achieve elsewhere.”

Further in the interview, Sakamoto also spoke about wanting artists to work directly with Decima to create their own shaders rather than only having programmers working with it. He noted that engines tend to contribute more to a game’s development than just offering a graphics pipeline. Thanks to that, just about every developer works with the engine in some way, at least indirectly.

“When people talk about game engines, attention tends to focus on the parts that relate directly to the game’s visual expression,” he explained. “But in reality, a game engine provides a wide range of functions that support every aspect of development. In that sense, the number and type of tools used may differ depending on one’s role, but I don’t think there is a single developer whose work is completely unrelated to Decima.”

Just last week, Kojima Productions had announced that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be coming to PC on March 19th. The announcement was made with a new trailer giving us a look at some of the game’s visuals on the platform. The studio has also confirmed that it will support uncapped frame rates for gameplay, support for DualSense features, and the ability to run at 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios for ultrawide displays.

For more details about Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, check out our review of its PS5 version.

According to a source speaking to Kotaku, developers were reportedly moved from Horizon 3 to “help” with Hunters Gathering. If that doesn’t sound vaguely similar to what BioWare did with the Dragon Age team for Anthem, a second source revealed that the sequel may not launch for another three to five years.

Based on rumors of the PlayStation 6’s release, allegedly scheduled for 2027 (unless plans change), it’s possible that Horizon 3 could be geared towards the same. However, this doesn’t entirely rule out a PS5 launch. That’s what happened with Horizon Forbidden West when it launched in 2022, and you have to believe Sony will repeat this process with other releases (including Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic).

In the meantime, Horizon Hunters Gathering will have a closed playtest later this month on PS5 and PC, with three Hunters available to test out. It doesn’t currently have a release date, but Guerrilla has confirmed post-launch support, including more story content.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier responded in the affirmative to a user on Bluesky who asked if this meant the sequel wouldn’t launch for a long time. Adding to this, he said, “I believe most of the studio is on this,” further reinforcing that this will be Guerrilla’s focus for some time.

That’s because the plan is to add more content, including expanding on the story post-launch. The fact that game director Arjan Bak confirmed that the narrative is fully canon further indicates that it’s fully focused on Hunters Gathering.

Despite the disappointment that’s been Sony’s live-service initiative, with multiple cancelled titles, the flop that was Concord, the missing Fairgame$, and so on, the company hasn’t indicated any desire to stop trying. After all, Helldivers 2 continues to perform well, and Bungie’s Marathon is coming up in March.

Nevertheless, Horizon Hunters Gathering has a rough road ahead, something which Guerrilla is seemingly aware of. It’s indicated a desire to build the game alongside fans, starting with a playtest later this month on PS5 and PC.

“I want to be very clear about one thing. We absolutely love making single-player games, and we’re going to keep making them,” said Van Beek, according to GamesRadar. He went on to note that, while single-player games are still “a huge part of who we are as a studio,” Guerrilla Games also has other ambitions.

“We also have this long-standing dream to try to do something different,” he explained. “Our own take on how you can explore the world of Horizon together as a team of machine hunters.”

Horizon Hunters Gathering will mark Guerrilla Games’ foray into multiplayer for the first time since its work on the Killzone franchise, the last of which was 2013’s Killzone Shadow Fall. Since then, the studio has kept itself busy with its work on the Horizon franchise, while also working with Kojima Productions so the latter could use the former’s in-house Decima game engine for Death Stranding.

The upcoming title is going to be a 3-player co-op game, with four environments being available for its various missions. The title will revolve around “runs”, and borrowing more cues from the rogue-lite genre, will allow players to power-up by acquiring Perks. Two modes have been confirmed for Horizon Hunters Gathering: Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent.

While Machine Incursion will focus on players teaming up to take on ever-escalating waves of Machines that culminates in a boss fight, Cauldron Descent will of focus on players exploring “ever-changing rooms”, each of which offering their own unique challenges. These can range from combat encounters to platforming and even puzzle-solving.

Completing a hunt across either of the mods will allow players to improve their gear depending on the rewards they found during their excursions. The title will also offer a hub area where players can socialize and hang out.

While it doesn’t yet have a release date, Guerrilla Games has announced a closed playtest, for which players can sign up through the PlayStation Beta Program. The playtest is slated to go live towards the end of the month.

While Horizon Hunters Gathering might seem like a fun idea for a spin-off, game director Arjan Bak has confirmed that its narrative will be “fully canon” with the overall Horizon franchise.

“These Hunters have their own motivations and personal struggles, which comes together in new stories we want to tell in the world of Horizon,” he said about the playable characters. “The game has a narrative campaign which will introduce new mysteries, characters, and threats, but we’re keeping it under wraps for now. What we can say is that Hunters Gathering is fully canon and its story doesn’t stop at launch!”

“These Hunters have their own motivations and personal struggles, which comes together in new stories we want to tell in the world of Horizon,” he said about the roster of new playable characters. “The game has a narrative campaign which will introduce new mysteries, characters, and threats, but we’re keeping it under wraps for now. What we can say is that Hunters Gathering is fully canon and its story doesn’t stop at launch!”

Of course, given how Horizon Forbidden West ended, you have to wonder how much it’s really going to matter when Horizon 3 launches. Regardless, this is the second multiplayer-centric Horizon project on the way, with NCSoft also working on Horizon Steel Frontiers. Guerrilla clearly wants to expand the universe in other directions and genres, so we’ll see how things pan out.

Horizon Hunters Gathering will feature four environments at launch, with players venturing through forests, plains, and even replayable Cauldrons to take on the Machines. While you’ll team up with two other players, the key difference from the other mainline Horizon games is that they each have unique abilities and playstyles. Some are ranged; others are melee-focused, and each can be assigned a different sub-role to bolster the team.

A release date has yet to be confirmed, but Horizon Hunters Gathering will have a closed playtest by the end of February with three playable characters available.

Unlike Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, Hunters Gathering features an animated art style and focuses on other formidable hunters in the world. Up to three players can team up and venture out into four different environments, acquiring Perks in rogue-lite fashion after clearing Machine encounters.

Two modes are confirmed – Machine Incursion, a wave-based battle against Machines ending in a boss fight, and Cauldron Descent, which is longer and offers “ever-changing rooms” (including some hidden ones). Similar to other games in the series, you can precisely target Machine parts with ranged weaponry. However, there’s also melee combat, and every character can choose Tank, Damage, and Support roles ahead of runs to support the team.

Upon completing a hunt, it’s back to the titular Hunters Gathering to socialize, improve your gear, and more. Those interested in trying Horizon Hunters Gathering before launch can sign up for a future closed playtest via the PlayStation Beta Program. It goes live at the end of this month, so stay tuned for more details.

First off, if you purchased a single item, then you get access to the entire Warbond, no questions asked. Arrowhead gifted some items last year as a sort of apology for its high price, and while you’ll need to pony up 1500 Super Credits if you didn’t pay for any, those gifted items won’t require medals.

Of course, if you’re new, then you’ll still need to pay the same price and spend on the items to unlock them. But at the very least, you can look forward to additions like the Extrasolar Ash patterns for the Pelican, Hellpod, Exosuits, and more.

The Legendary Warbond arrives in the wake of a new Helldivers 2 update, which adds Magma Worlds for players to battle on. Arrowhead is also prototyping a new rogue-lite mode, but there’s no ETA on its official release (or whether it will be added to the game).