Despite their pedigree for single-player games, Sony want a massive live-service title. They've committed hundreds of millions to this pivot, and so far it hasn't worked. But, as an industry insider has revealed, they remain committed to breaking into the live-service market, and a lot of their hopes rest on a Horizon multiplayer game.
Back in 2022, Sony announced that they would be launching 12 live-service games by 2025. That hasn't happened, and along the way some of their attempts have been so bad they've caused reputational damage (Concord), but they remain committed to making a live service hit. Could a Horizon multiplayer game be the answer?
Horizon Online releasing ahead of Horizon 3, as Sony prioritizes pivot to live-service
Legendary gaming journalist Jason Schreier was recently on the Spawn Wave podcast, where he gave us an insight into how important Horizon Online is to Sony. The new multiplayer game has taken priority over the next single-player Horizon game and will release first, as part of Sony's ongoing attempts to break into the live-service market:
Horizon Online is their next product, not the third single-player game [...] it's live service games all around. Horizon is one of the few ones that hasn't been cancelled or hasn't come out and flopped the way Concord did and so...yeah, a lot of questions. A lot of people are working on that.
So far, the live-service initiative has been a flop. Yes, Helldivers enjoyed a great launch, but Concord was a catastrophe, the multiplayer project set in The Last of Us universe was cancelled, and Marathon looks doomed to fail.
There must then be a huge amount of internal pressure on Horizon Online to succeed, and we hope it does, but it's hard to feel confident. Although popular, this certainly isn't an IP "too big to fail", and the gameplay of Horizon does not seem particularly conducive to multiplayer.
For now, all we can do is await further leaks. Are you excited about Horizon Online?