Summary
- The NCSoft-developed Horizon MMO might still be in development, even though recent rumors alleged that it was canceled.
- The journalist who reported the NCSoft cancelations recently affirmed that the now-shelved Project H, which many assumed to be the Horizon MMO, is completely unrelated to Horizon.
- In addition to the Horizon MMO, there's a Horizon co-op multiplayer game in PlayStation's live-service pipeline.
Contrary to prior reporting, the Horizon MMO 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 purported Horizon MMO being developed by South Korean studio NCSoft was the latest addition to this list. However, a new development suggests that the Horizon MMO is safe, at least for now.
One of the many upcoming projects based on the Horizon IP is rumored to be a live-service MMORPG. The Horizon MMO is supposedly a collaboration between PlayStation and NCSoft, the developer behind MMORPGs like Guild Wars 2, Blade and Soul, and Genesis, and has been in development since late 2022. While neither company has announced or made any mention of the Horizon MMO, some of NCSoft's previous job listings mentioned work on a game codenamed Project Skyline. The illustration for Project Skyline was made with the exact font used for the Horizon logo, indirectly confirming the game's affiliation with the franchise.
What to Expect From the Horizon Franchise in 2025
Fans of the hit post-apocalyptic PlayStation Studios' game franchise Horizon can expect a lot of potential new content to be released in 2025
The status of the Horizon MMO's development recently fell into question after a report alleged that NCSoft's financial woes had resulted in the cancelation of several of its upcoming games, including one dubbed Project H. At the time, many assumed that Project H was the Horizon MMO and believed it was no longer in development. However, Seo Jeong-geun, the journalist who reported on the NCSoft cancelations, has now clarified in a recent email that Project H had "nothing to do with Horizon." Therefore, it seems the Horizon MMO is still in the works.
Horizon MMO Apparently Not Canceled, Previously-Rumored Project H Was a Separate Game
Considering PlayStation canceled two live-service projects from first-party teams Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games just last week, it's understandable why many presumed that development on the Horizon MMO 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's The Last of Us Online project, ended up shelved. Moreover, the disastrous failure of Concord last year has reportedly led to PlayStation taking a long, hard look at the remaining live-service titles it has in the pipeline.
While the Horizon MMO is one of the few PlayStation live-service projects that have evaded cancelation (for now), it's interestingly not the only Horizon live-service project in development. Guerrilla Games has long been working on a Horizon co-op multiplayer game, which is rumored to be the studio's next release and may launch in 2025. Given that the Horizon MMO 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 the Horizon MMO and co-op game look.
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.
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