While NCSoft will likely have Aion 2 take a prominent spot at the event, complete with a playable demo showcasing character creation and a new take on one of the franchise’s fan-favourite dungeon, it is also slated to feature a yet-to-be-unveiled title, which is believed to be an MMORPG based on Sony’s and Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise. The title, referred to internally as Project Skyline, first came to light thanks to a series of leaks and rumours.

The report also indicates that the timeline lines up with reports that development on the Horizon MMO started back in 2021, which means that an official unveiling at a major event in 2025 would make sense for the company. G-Star 2025 is slated to start on November 13, and will go on until November 16.

Interestingly, a report from earlier this year had indicated that the Horizon MMO, also believed to be codenamed Project H, was seemingly being cancelled. The report at the time indicated that Project H, along with Project J and Pantera had their development halted. However, a later report indicated that while Project H has been cancelled, it was a completely different game than the Horizon MMO that NCSoft was working on with Guerrilla Games.

Along with Aion 2 and maybe even the Horizon MMO, NCSoft will also bring Cinder City to G-Star 2025. The title was officially unveiled back in August, and is slated for release on PC and consoles some time in 2026. Cinder City has been described as a tactical shooter that takes place in a dystopian take on Seoul. This means that the title will also allow players to explore in-game versions of real-world locations in Korea, including Samseong-dong, and Noyeong-dong.

“Cinder City is a game name that conveys the meaning of humanity in the future, facing a serious crisis, saving the world as a spark of hope in a ruined, decadent city.” said BigFire Games CEO and project lead Jaehyun Bae in the game’s announcement. “BigFire Games will work together to do our best to develop the game in order to satisfy players around the world.”

Cinder City was originally announced back in November 2022. At the time, it was only known as Project LLL, and was described as being an open-world third-person shooter. When it was first announced, Bae had spoken about wanting to develop a new take on the multiplayer shooter genre that can stand apart from popular battle royales and looter shooters. To achieve this, Cinder City is going to feature a host of different play styles, as well as elements of other NCSoft games.

NCSoft has indeed cancelled the in-development title known internally as Project H, though contrary to speculation, it seems that game isn’t the Horizon MMO being made in collaboration with PlayStation and Guerrilla. That’s as per reporter Seo Jeong-geun, who wrote the original report for Korean outlet MTN from which this story emerged. Taking to Korean gaming forum Ruliweb, Jeong-geun that the Project H in question “has nothing to do with Horizon“.

Interestingly, job listings published by NCSoft indicate that the Horizon MMO is in development under the codename Project Skyline (via ResetEra). Though it was initially being worked on as Project H, it seems that codename was being held by an entirely different project that has now have been cancelled. That would mean NCSoft is still collaborating with Guerrilla and PlayStation on the Horizon title. The company signed a strategic partnership with Sony back in November of 2023.

Guerrilla is currently also working on a separate co-op Horizon project that is rumoured to be the studio’s next big release. Read more on that through here.

The reports indicate that development the three games was halted at the end of 2024, with the development teams being told at the start of this year to prepare for transfers to other teams. Of these now-cancelled titles, Project H is speculated to be the Horizon MMORPG.

–R was also able to point out that some of the recent departures from NCSoft’s development teams match up with the timeline from the MTN report, lending further credence to the idea that these projects might have been cancelled. Neither NCSoft nor PlayStation have made any announcement about a Horizon MMO, much less its cancellation.

Of these games, while Project J is still an unknown title, Pantera is expected to be a new game in the Lineage franchise, known internally as “Raise Lineage M“.

The cancellation might have been a part of the larger trend at PlayStation of shutting down development of live-service titles. More recently, the PlayStation has reportedly cancelled development of unnamed titles at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games. The move was likely made in the fallout of the failure of Concord, which was shut down less than a month after its release.

NCSoft has a long history in developing MMORPGs, with one of its more popular ones in the west being Guild Wars 2. When rumours about the Horizon MMO first came about, NCSoft itself was relatively cagey about the game, instead stating: “It is difficult to confirm information about unpublished projects that are currently under development.”

While the Horizon franchise may ultimately end up not getting an MMO, players can instead check out the single-player offerings, including the recent remaster of the original Horizon Zero Dawn. Read our review for the remaster here.

Spotted by @Jorraptor on Twitter, a job listing published by Guerrilla seems to indicate that Horizon Online – or whatever the co-op title ends up being called – could release sometime next year. Specifically, the job ad is for the position of a Release QA Intern, and mentions that the applicant will help “ensure the game is prepared for launch”- though of course, the game isn’t explicitly named.

Interestingly, the listing also states that the applicant will have to be available for the required work “during the first half of 2025”, potentially indicating that Guerrilla is making final launch preparations in that period ahead of a release in the year’s back half.

That is, of course, speculation, but recent reports have also claimed that Horizon Online is Guerrilla’s next project, with Horizon 3 being very early in development and, as such, still years away.

Details on Horizon Online are few and far between, though back in 2022, Guerrilla stated that the game would feature a “new cast of characters” and a “unique stylized look”. Read more on that through here.

Speaking in a recent interview with Washington Post, Postma touched on Killzone, stating that Guerrilla was “done” with the franchise when it decided to start developing Horizon Zero Dawn, and that the latter was consciously and deliberately designed as a much more vibrant and colourful experience than the gritty and dour Killzone universe.

“We were done with it as a team,” Postma said. “As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of Killzone. I think the themes that this story and the characters represent are relatable for all ages and people, like having a found family of friends and finding your place in the world.”

With Killzone having been dormant for over a decade and Horizon enjoying the success that it has, chances of the former coming back from the dead have looked slim anyway, but when you add Postma’s comments on top of that, those chances begin looking even slimmer, which is something Killzone fans won’t be happy with.

Horizon fans, on the other hand, have no shortage of things to look forward to, with Hero Zero Dawn Remastered due out on October 31, and LEGO Horizon Adventures launching not long afterward on November 14.

According to journalist Jason Schreier, that’s not going to be the case. Speaking recently during the Spawn Wave podcast, Schreier claimed that Guerrilla’s next project was going to be the co-op game that the studio confirmed to be in development back in 2022. Meanwhile, the follow-up to Horizon Forbidden West is “a ways off”, according to Schreier. 

Guerrilla has confirmed in the past that it is working on the next single-player Horizon game, though it is yet to be officially announced, and based on Schreier’s information, that might not change anytime soon. 

Meanwhile, reports have claimed that a Horizon MMORPG is also in development in collaboration with NCSoft, which entered into a strategic partnership agreement with PlayStation last year. 

Specifically, it looks like Netflix’s adaptation of Guerrilla and Sony’s Horizon series has been shelved. As reported by Rolling Stone, the show’s alleged cancellation comes amidst allegations of “a long history of toxic, bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behavior” in the workplace against Steven Blackman. Blackman is best known as the showrunner of Netflix series The Umbrella Academy, and was set to serve in the same capacity on Horizon.

Whether that means Netflix will find a new showrunner for the Horizon series to move forward with is anyone’s guess, but for now, it doesn’t look like plans for the series are going to move forward- at least not in the way may had expected.

Outside of Horizon, Sony is currently working with various external partners on new or continued adaptations of its PlayStation properties, including a second season of The Last of Us, a second Uncharted movie, a movie based on Ghost of Tsushima, an Amazon Prime show based on God of War, and more.

Later this year, Sony will release a new Horizon spinoff game, LEGO Horizon Adventures, co-developed by Studio Gobo and Guerrilla. It will release for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

This is according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who replied “No” on Twitter when asked if the title was cancelled. Announced in December 2022, it’s set in the same universe with new characters to interact with and a “unique stylized look” as players team up and explore the “majestic wilds.” A new internal team is handling development, but thus far, there’s no release window or even an official name.

Guerrilla Games will continue to create further single-player titles starring Aloy, though it hasn’t officially revealed the follow-up to Horizon Forbidden West. The studio was hiring for its online, single-player and external project teams. With today’s layoffs, it remains to be seen how many new hires were affected. Stay tuned for more details on the project in the meantime.

No

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 27, 2024

According to Sony, writing is underway for both the God of War and Horizon TV shows. Not much else is known about either show, with information also scant on things such as casting, though it was previously confirmed that The Wheel of Time’s Rafe Judkins was serve as showrunner for God of War, with The Expanse’s Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby serving as its writers, and God of War (2018) director Cory Barlog as executive producer.

In December 2022, Amazon Studios’ head of television Vernon Sanders said the God of War show would be “incredibly true to the source material, and also compelling on its own.” Read more on that through here.

Other PlayStation properties that also have adaptations in the works include Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, and Gravity Rush, while season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us is also in the works.

Speaking recently during a talk at Develop:Brighton (via GamesRadar), Jan-Bart van Beek, studio director at Guerrilla Games, reiterated the studio’s plans to keep investing in the franchise, saying that Guerrilla is “going to be continuing it for a very long while”. Currently, that constitutes 16 “plans” being in the works.

While not all of these “plans” are new games or releases, some of them certainly are. One of them, of course, is a co-op multiplayer Horizon title. Along witb confirming in December that it was in development, Guerrilla revealed that the game will also feature a “unique stylized look”. Earlier this year, early development alpha gameplay footage also leaked, offering a rough look at the project.

According to van Been, the co-op multiplayer title is going to be “a massive shift for the studio, almost on the same level as doing the first Horizon“. “Building this all out to a multiplayer experience is a whole new challenge for the studio,” he said.

In addition, Guerrilla has also previously confirmed that it will continue to work on single player games in the Horizon universe, and said in April that work on the next mainline title starring series protagonist Aloy was already underway.

Leaks have also claimed that the studio is collaborating with NCSoft for the development of a Horizon MMORPG, and that a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn is also in the works for PS5.