Looks like a Horizon Zero Dawn MMO is coming
Sony has reportedly partnered with Guild Wars developer NCSoft for a new Horizon game
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Horizon MMO
🌄 A Horizon Zero Dawn MMO could be on the, er, horizon
🆕 Guild Wars developer NCSoft has apparently partnered with Sony to work on a new title in the franchise
👨👩👦👦 Signs suggest it will be a massively multiplayer online RPG
🤩 It’s the latest in a series of new Horizon spin-offs and announcements
Sony has reportedly struck a deal with Korean developer NCSoft, paving the way for a Horizon MMO.
South Korean news channel MTN reports NCSoft is in the early stages of developing a new game in the Horizon franchise (thanks, VGC). The studio and Sony have “tentatively agreed to promote a business partnership to create a new game using Sony's promising game IP” (translated by Google).
The unannounced title is reportedly being produced for the global market by NCSoft’s internal development team. In the past, the developer has almost exclusively worked on MMORPG titles, including the acclaimed Guild Wars series.
NCSoft hasn’t confirmed such a game is in the pipeline, telling MTN in a typically non-committal statement: "It is difficult to confirm information about unpublished projects that are currently under development."
It would certainly be a change of pace for the single-player, open-world PlayStation series, but Sony looks keen to promote Horizon as one of its biggest brands. It ported 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn to PC in 2020, and the upcoming first-person VR game Horizon Call of the Mountain is one of our most anticipated PSVR 2 games. Rather than focusing on Aloy, it’ll introduce several new characters, possibly laying the groundwork on which a large MMO can expand.
A report from earlier this year also suggested that a Horizon Zero Dawn PS5 remake is on the way featuring a host of visual improvements and accessibility options. It’s divided fans, though. Some are eager to revisit Aloy’s first adventure with higher-spec hardware, while others have dismissed it as an unnecessary cash grab.
The same report also mentioned a Horizon multiplayer game was in early development, although made no connection between that title and NCSoft. If those multiplayer games do ever appear, let’s hope they join all the PS5 120fps games – Horizon Forbidden West made the apocalypse look gorgeous.
Add to that the Horizon Zero Dawn Netflix series that’s currently in production, and there’s no shortage of robot dinosaur adventures coming down the line.
While you wait for the Horizon MMO to appear, you could always dip into NCSoft’s back catalog. Originally released in 2012, Guild Wars 2 finally hopped over to Steam earlier this year. The free-to-play MMORPG has racked up more than 15 million players over the past decade and is still lauded by MMO fans despite its age.