Things have been slightly quiet on the Horizon front since the release of Lego Horizon Adventures back in late 2024. That's set to change relatively soon, as two massive spin-offs are in the works, and one of them is due to launch next year.

The world of Aloy and the mechanized dinosaurs will expand considerably with upcoming MMORRPG Horizon Steel Frontiers, and publisher NCSoft's latest financial report has given us a release window. According to the slides breaking down the company's upcoming slate, the game will come in the first half of 2027.

Nothing more specific is provided, but that's enough to get excited about, considering the dearth of releases from the franchise last year and this year. A free-to-play MMO, Steel Frontiers will take players to the Deadlands, where players will scope out fresh dinosaurs to take down and group up into factions for team-based combat.

It sounds somewhat similar to Monster Hunter, though with more PvP for the resources and prizes and resources available. It marks a bit of a seachange for the Horizon universe, as it's the first installment thus far not set for a PlayStation system.

It's due for PC and mobile devices at present, but I'm sure if it's popular we'll be able to play with a DualShock at some point. A co-op game, Horizon Hunters Gathering, is also on the way, coming from Guerrilla Games. That will come to PlayStation 5, and it's a more casual experience, pitting teams of up to three against various missions.

We still don't have word on the status of Horizon 3, the sequel to Forbidden West. Given the popularity of Aloy and the property generally, it seems a lock, but we haven't had any sort of reveal. Maybe at this year's Summer Game Fest? Watch this space.

GTA San Andreas devs "regretted" adding stealth, Rockstar veteran says: "We ended up stretching ourselves too thin"

Players will get to try that Horizon multiplayer game soon, when the first playtest for Horizon Hunters Gathering kicks off in just a few days. There's a small problem though: it's occurring right in the middle of Marathon's server slam.

The inaugural closed beta for the upcoming co-operative take on Aloy's adventures from Guerrilla Games begins on Friday, February 27, and it'll run through to Sunday, March 1. Included are three characters, Rem, Sun and Axle, and you can put them through their paces across two modes, Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent.

Of these, Machine Incursion is described as hard and normal, while Cauldron Descent is just normal. The one area will be Colorado Springs, an area you'll perhaps recognize if you're familiar with the series thus far.

There'll be a hub within the multiplayer, called the Gathering, you can also make use of to co-ordinate games together and potentially find others to team up with. The test is occurring across PS5 and PC, making sure nobody is left out. All in all, it sounds like it'll be a good demo for those keen, but it's a pity people's attention will be split, since Bungie's hosting a pre-launch event for Marathon during the same period.

Marathon's upcoming server test runs from Thursday, February 26 to Tuesday, March 2. You can see the predicament caused here. What's funnier here is that both of these studios are owned by Sony; Marathon is Bungie's first new release since being acquired.

It furthers Horizon's rather unfortunate trend of always competing for people's attention. The first debuted around The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while Forbidden West stood in the shadow of Elden Ring. Now this has Marathon on its tail, at least for now.

This seems likely a wholly avoidable situation, but maybe I'm exaggerating and Horizon and Marathon crowds are two distinct groups. You won't have any shortage of things to play this weekend if you've got some free time, that's for sure.

After swapping Metroidvania icon Ori for Soulslike RPG No Rest for the Wicked, studio boss tells Horizon devs not to sweat it "too much" if fans don't like their multiplayer pivot "just yet"

Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler has backed Guerrilla Games on its co-op pivot, Horizon Hunters Gathering, telling the team not to worry too much if people aren't immediately on board with such a drastically different game.

Guerrilla Games last week revealed a co-op spin-off of its usually single-player robot-dinosaur series, Horizon Hunters Gathering, a game that looks a touch more like Monster Hunter than Horizon Zero Dawn. Between the updated art style and general gameplay loop, online reactions haven't been too hot, prompting Mahler to jump into the discourse.

The Ori and No Rest for the Wicked studio head recently tweeted in support of the PlayStation studio. "Don't fret too much if people don't like your game just yet," he writes on Twitter. "Don't lose heart, focus on gameplay and polish and try to innovate: Give us an experience that we didn't have before. Remember: It ain't over till the fat lady sings."

Mahler's co-op action RPG No Rest for the Wicked was another major genre departure for his studio, which had previously found success with two gorgeous Metroidvanias. No Rest for the Wicked also had a tough time out of the gate with negative reviews, but after a bunch of Early Access updates, it's since reached the point where Mahler reckons it could be an evergreen hit that keeps growing for years.

We'll start hearing what people really think about Horizon Hunters Gathering when players go hands-on sometime later this year. And in case you wanted to throw your hat into the post-apocalyptic ring, here's how to sign up for Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest on PS5 and PC.

After announcing a multiplayer Horizon game, Guerrilla boss heads off live service complaints: "We absolutely love making single-player games, and we're going to keep making them."

Fans of Horizon Zero Dawn and sequel Horizon Forbidden West have been waiting for news of a threequel now for a few years – but with Horizon Hunters Gathering underway, it seems the community might have to wait a bit longer.

Developer Guerrilla and publisher Sony's beloved post-apocalyptic action RPG series is on the minds of many a fan now, with news of multiplayer spin-off Horizon Hunters Gathering having just surfaced days ago – out of the blue, too, as many folks would argue.

With the new title coming, what's happening with the unannounced third mainline project? According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, it's likely not a priority at the moment.

I believe most of the studio is on this

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T10:41:21.731Z

Over on Bluesky, a Horizon player asks Schreier if a "separate team" from the one working on the series' main entries is working on Hunters Gathering. In response, he explains that he believes "most of the studio is on this" – which, unsurprisingly, would make the spin-off the priority right now, in terms of development.

Another fan chimes in with an "Oh no!" After all, this would also likely mean a delay in a third Horizon title's progress.

"I expected they're working on Horizon 3! I assume we can't expect for it to launch before a long time then," their frantic response continues. Schreier simply responds, "Yup."

Other folks don't think Hunters Gathering has that much of an impact on the threequel's own timeline, though. "I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve with this comment," as one fan puts it. "Horizon 3 is already in development. Forbidden West came out in 2022."

Yup

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T10:41:21.791Z

They continue, describing how AAA games usually take five or more years to develop, which makes a third Horizon's later launch not "some kind of a delay" but rather its normal course of progress.

Honestly, I'd say it's likely a mix of both arguments here – Hunters Gathering is potentially the focus right now, but a Horizon Forbidden West follow-up was probably not in the cards for quite some time. It is only 2026.

"Slavish" Horizon clone removed from Steam and Epic Games Store as Tencent and Sony reach out-of-court agreement over survival game Light of Motiram

The upcoming Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest is the perfect way to get a first look at Guerrilla's newly announced entry in the Horizon series, which pitches cooperative teams of up to three Hunters against deadly machine threats. This initial beta test will take place at the end of February on both PS5 and PC, but you need to register your interest to be in with a chance of participating. To find out more, here's how to sign up for the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest on PS5 and PC.

How to join the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest

To sign up for the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest, you just need to follow this link to the PlayStation Beta Program and you should get a pop up saying "Success! Thank you for showing interest in this beta. Future communications will be emailed to you." You'll need to be signed in on your PSN account for this automatic registration to complete, and if you're a PC player who doesn't have one already then you'll need to create a PSN account in order to take part in this first look at Horizon Hunters Gathering.

Ultimately you'll want to have a PSN account for this anyway, as one will be required for crossplay between PS5 and PC, plus you'll get cross-progression over both platforms as long as you log in with the same PlayStation account. Do note that this initial beta at the end of February is a "first, small-scale closed playtest" so registration in no way guarantees access, though if you don't receive further details via email then Guerrilla have promised that "unsuccessful applicants will have further opportunities to playtest the game later in 2026."

In the meantime you can wishlist Horizon Hunters Gathering on PlayStation 5 or PC via Steam, and join the official Discord for the latest news.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Out of nowhere and seemingly determined to steal the spotlight from the Nintendo Direct that just wrapped up, a new Horizon game – Horizon Hunters Gathering – has been announced, bringing a Monster Hunter-flavored co-op action twist to the series.

Revealed on the PlayStation Blog, Horizon Hunters Gathering is being developed by Guerrilla Games for both PS5 and PC. Game director Arjan Bak says it "lets up to three players team up as heroic Hunters to protect a world under threat from deadly machines. Combat is tactical, reactive, and deeply skill-based, building on the tactical precision of the Horizon games while embracing the dynamics of team play."

You can check out the trailer below.

So far, two game modes have been revealed – Machine Incursion and Cauldon Descent. Both of these will be playable "in our upcoming closed playtest through the PlayStation Beta Program on PS5 and PC," which is coming at the end of this month. The former mode will see you take on waves of machines led by a boss, all pouring out from "underground gateways," while the latter is described as a "multi-stage trial in which ever-changing rooms push Hunters to their limits, from brutal machine encounters to hidden doors that promise power and reward for teams prepared to open them."

There'll be a roster of different characters to choose from, all of which will boast "distinct melee or ranged playstyles and weapons." What's more, you'll be able to choose from perks thanks to a roguelite system to fine-tune your builds even more.

Despite being a multiplayer game, there's still going to be a narrative campaign, which is described as "fully canon and its story doesn't stop at launch!" So, make of that what you will.

"On a personal note, this is both an exciting and daunting step for us," Bak writes. "Multiplayer games have always been part of our studio's DNA, and it's where I began my own career. Bringing a co-op hunting experience into the Horizon universe is something we've envisioned for a long time, and we're approaching it with care, ambition, and passion. I hope the coming months give you a sense of the scale and complexity of what we've been building – or better yet, let you experience it yourself in a playtest."

Things are described as being "early on," so it's not clear how long we might be waiting for this one to release. However, if you're interested in an early look, you can sign up for the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest to register your interest.

Long-rumored Horizon MMORPG is officially real, but the monkey's paw curls as it's not coming to PlayStation and is "built specifically for mobile."

Sony and Tencent's legal battle over Light of Motiram, an alleged "slavish clone" of Horizon developed and published by the latter, is done. The two have reached an out-of-court settlement, and the game is no longer available on Steam or the Epic Games Store.

Back in July, Sony took Tencent to court to stop Light of Motiram from being released. The game, an open-world adventure featuring a female protagonist in a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by biomechanical animals, was alleged to resemble Sony's hugely successful Horizon games closely. So much so, the PlayStation maker believed it infringed on the copyright, as the company's case states.

Tencent attempted to file for dismissal, arguing "fame does not create a trademark" and that Sony was trying to "monopolize" certain well-trodden ideas within the video game space. It transpired that meetings were held between the two parties for something Horizon-related that ultimately fell through, and it seemed their contentious back-and-forth would continue, but now they've come to an agreement.

A new court document shows Sony has withdrawn the claim, and the suit is "dismissed with prejudice." In other words, it can't be reopened or re-litigated at a later date. A representative for Tencent confirmed to The Verge that an agreement has been reached.

"SIE and Tencent are pleased to have reached a confidential resolution and will have no further public comment on this matter," Sean Durkin, head of communications for Tencent Americas, said. "SIE and Tencent look forward to working together in the future."

Light of Motiram has since been removed from Steam and the Epic Games Store. The project's fate is unclear, however, as the official site and related social media channels remain up, without updates since Sony began proceedings.

8 years after Horizon Zero Dawn, developer Guerrilla Games reveals it "always thought about it as a multiplayer game" following Horizon MMORPG announcement.

Tencent has agreed to hold off on any promotion of its upcoming open-world survival game Light of Motiram – a game that Sony alleged is a "slavish clone" of its own Horizon titles – at least until things reach an important next step in the two companies' ongoing legal battle.

Light of Motiram, developed by Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest, was unveiled last year, and immediately found itself being compared to Horizon Zero Dawn thanks to its animal-like machine foes, key visuals, and concept. Sony clearly thought it looked rather familiar, too, as it filed a lawsuit against Tencent earlier this year, calling Light of Motiram a "slavish clone." Tencent has defended itself, arguing that Sony's action is "an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony's exclusive domain," and later declaring that "fame does not create a trademark; to qualify as a trademark, a mark must serve as a source identifier for a particular good or service."

Now, as spotted by The Game Post, yesterday a new stipulation and proposed order was filed, in which – per Sony Interactive Entertainment's request – Tencent agrees that (amongst other things), "there will be no new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram during the pendency of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction," and "the Light of Motiram release will not be moved up to before Q4 2027."

For context, back in October, Sony sought a preliminary injunction – essentially, an order which stops a party from doing something until the courts make their final decision. In this case, it wanted to stop Tencent "from reproducing, preparing derivative works of, displaying, performing, and distributing any works copied or derived from SIE's Horizon Works, including Light of Motiram, and from using the ALOY Character Mark or any confusingly similar mark pending trial."

In a declaration of support of the new stipulation and proposed order, Tencent's attorney says: "The Parties have agreed to a stipulated request for a modified briefing schedule with mutually agreeable dates and a mutually agreeable hearing date for both the Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Preliminary Injunction. The Parties request that Defendants' deadline to file their response to the Motion for Preliminary Injunction shall be December 17, 2025 and that SIE's deadline to file it Reply in Support of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction shall be January 2, 2026.

"The Parties further request that the hearing date for both the Motion to Dismiss and the Motion for Preliminary Injunction be reset from January 15, 2026 to January 29, 2026, subject to the Court's availability."

Basically, it sounds like we can expect a lot more of the case to unfold in January, but for the time being, don't expect to see any official new Light of Motiram footage or teasers.

While you're here, be sure to take a look at our roundup of new games coming this year and beyond.

Reinstalling Horizon Forbidden West was a mistake. Suddenly several hours have passed by and, depending on your perspective, I have done nothing – if you measure your productivity or enjoyment by vertical progression, that is. No, nothing was 'ticked off' a list, but I did soar across the sea to the ruins of San Francisco on a Sunwing, hunt down a Slitherfang, and was content to simply exist, explore, and rediscover the Forbidden West's stunning vistas.

I can't get enough of games that fuel the insatiable beast of curiosity living rent free in my mind – even if that means accidentally staying up until three o'clock in the morning (I'm looking at you, Baldur's Gate 3). While I do enjoy an Uncharted-esque cinematic sense of adventure, crafted like a thrilling theme park experience with fast-paced action and jaw dropping set pieces – I often crave more. I want to get lost in a world with depth that bestows a level of autonomy as you uncover its secrets – allowing you to form the meat around the narrative backbone and letting you loose in the environment.

Maintaining a compelling level of interest without generating fatigue is a delicate balance to strike and three years on, Horizon Forbidden West continues to spark curiosity whichever way you turn.

Relic raider

Aloy is a hunter, so the gameplay naturally encourages you to make use of the environment around you and assess your surroundings, be it setting traps or reaching a vantage point – which is where I'd go wildly off-piste in the opposite direction to whatever I was supposed to do. One time that was literal, as I attempted to see if I could 'ski' down a mountain.

There's always a new perspective to be found in the Forbidden West, be it through your playstyle, traversal, or its fantastic photo mode. The map isn't bloated or full of unnecessary space (or the same tired copy and pasted moss covered cave) and there's clear intent – a history woven into the earth to immerse yourself in, if you wish to stop and smell the roses.

I'm constantly wondering what's beyond the serpentine machinery embedded in the ground, creating a stark contrast between the 'old' technological world and the new sprouting alongside it. In this backdrop of possibilities, what will I find? Friends, foes, relics, data logs? Count me in.

Relic Ruins are a particular favorite, as you engage in Lara Croft style puzzles within unique environments that contain remnants of the old world, just waiting to be discovered. Another day, another distraction, as I raise a Tallneck from the depths of the sea.

Day cycles into night and darkness washes over like a chilling embrace – machines whirr and searchlights of Watchers poke through blades of grass. You become more vulnerable in the snow capped mountains or in the desert, but it's exhilarating. The world feels dynamic and alive. As it happens, in the desert under the cover of night is where I found the game's brightest spark, the ruins of Las Vegas – and I still think about it to this day. Referred to as Hidden Ember, what remains of this once lively hub of entertainment and revelry juts out of the desert casting jagged shadows of the past. The main quest brings you here, combining action, adventure, and spectacle amidst an environment that begs to be explored and revisited.

To retrieve POSEIDON, a part of GAIA (a programme that's key to saving the world), you dive into the flooded casino beneath the sands. Masterful misdirection has you swimming through Dunehollow, which appears to be a captivating, holographic Atlantis with a 'Loch Ness' Tideripper to defeat. Once the area is drained of water the tranquil waterworld illusion lifts, revealing the underground dome to be the Las Vegas strip. The lights now illuminating the former landscape of Las Vegas below and above ground had my jaw on the floor. Holographic projections shape and overlay where a long-forgotten city once stood. Familiar sights such as the Eiffel Tower and The Strat are sketched in neon back into existence, and a dragon settles on top of the Tower of Tears.

You could move on from here, but why would you want to so soon? There's much more to explore. See the sights from the air in an experimental hot air balloon and delve back into Dunehollow to uncover orbs which power seasonal lights – I remember going back to see each one in real-time (there are nine!), though you can set it to be Christmas every day if you really want to.

It's moments like these that showcase everything Horizon Forbidden West has to offer beneath the surface. Its environmental storytelling and side content far surpasses its overarching narrative – which is not necessarily a bad thing, when there's so much more to uncover.

That invisible string which tugs you back to a game's world so hard that it gives you a twitch, is a rare occurrence. Horizon Forbidden West's open world manages to combine exhilarating spectacle with a burgeoning desire to see what's beyond the horizon – it's in the name, after all – creating a PlayStation 5 classic that's still well worth your time.

Check out our best PS5 games ranking for what to play next!

There's an MMORPG set in the Horizon universe on the way, titled Steel Frontiers. Though it may seem odd to branch a single-player series off into something multiplayer-focused, apparently, this was all part of the original idea from Guerrilla Games for Aloy and the mechanical dinosaurs.

"From the first moment we imagined Horizon, we always thought about it as a multiplayer game," Jan-Bart van Beek, studio director of Guerrilla Games, tweeted following the announcement. "Lego Horizon Adventures was our first small step; with Steel Frontiers, we're taking a bigger one. There is much more to come, and we’re excited to show you what is coming."

Indeed, Lego Horizon Adventures features the option of co-op play, something common to Lego games. It only allowed for two players locally, truly justifying van Beek's remark that it was the "first small step," whereas Steel Frontiers is a full-on multi-platform experience, coming for PC and mobile – at least to start.

Guerrilla is working with NCSoft on the MMO, with the latter handling the bulk of development. A ten-minute announcement video teased numerous facets, including an "advanced combat system" and appropriately big raids. NCSoft is utilizing its bespoke platform, Purple, which will allow for full cross-platform integration between PC and mobile - and yes, this does mean it won't be available on PS5, at least at launch.

While NCSoft handles this, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier states there's another Horizon-related multiplayer game in the works in-house at Guerrilla. "That one is Guerrilla's next big project," he says. That game is as-yet-unannounced, and details are extremely limited for the time being.

Since Zero Dawn's arrival in 2017, Horizon has become a huge property for Sony. There's now a film is in the pipeline, for potential release in 2027. A third single-player game was teased after Forbidden West, but we've heard little since, and a VR spin-off, Horizon Call of the Mountain, came out in 2023.

Tencent defends "slavish" Horizon Zero Dawn clone from Sony, claiming that "fame does not create a trademark" as it tries to bat legal claims away from survival game Light of Motiram

South Korean developer and publisher NCSoft has revealed the long-rumored Horizon MMORPG – officially titled Horizon Steel Frontiers – at the Korean video game conference G-Star 2025.

NCSoft says that the game is being developed "in collaboration" with Horizon's original creator Guerrilla Games. However, in the announcement trailer, studio director Jan-Bart Van Beek emphasises that NCSoft is Horizon Steel Frontiers' developer, suggesting that Guerrilla Games is playing a supportive role.

Rumors of the game began back in 2023 when a NCSoft employee posted a job listing on LinkedIn for a game then titled "Project Skyline", which was written in the same font as the Horizon games. The post was quickly taken down, but the internet never forgets. The most surprising aspect of the official announcement is that it's only being released on mobile and PC, and will not be available on PlayStation like the main series titles.

In the trailer for the game, Van Beek says, "Horizon Steel Frontiers is a full-flesh MMORPG that NCSoft has built specifically for mobile," though it does have cross-platform play with PC. It won't feature Aloy or the other characters from the Horizon series, but it is based in the Horizon universe featuring tribes from the mainline games.

Aside from adding the features you expect from an MMORPG, like character creation, Horizon Steel Frontiers will also completely change how combat works to optimize it for multiplayer, with the focus changing to "cooperation and strategy."

"Our main focus is designing a new combat experience tailored for an MMORPG," says NCSoft executive producer Sung-gu Lee. "In Horizon Steel Frontiers, we've added unique original gameplay elements to the process of taking down giant machines."

There is no release window for Horizon Steel Frontiers, but the footage shown in the trailer is labelled as "pre-alpha footage" so it's likely still a long way from launch.

Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch says she had no idea if she'd actually been cast as Aloy until she was suddenly in the recording booth: "It really hit me in that moment, like, oh this is a big deal."

Earlier this year, Sony filed a lawsuit against Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and holding company Tencent, dubbing its project Light of Motiram a "slavish clone" – only for Tencent to later hit back with its own motion to dismiss.

Shortly after, Sony clapped back with a response, saying, "The damage is done" and calling Tencent's reply "nonsense." The Horizon Zero Dawn publisher also doubled down on its argument that Light of Motiram is a "knock-off" of its action RPG. After going through why it finds Tencent's logic unfounded, Sony concluded, "For the foregoing reasons, the Motion to Dismiss should be denied in its entirety."

The legal battle isn't anywhere near over just yet, however – and Tencent has returned with a new document directed toward Sony. The company starts its 21-page statement by outlining why it feels the opposition's "lawsuit was brought against the wrong parties, long before many of the purported acts of infringement had even occurred, regarding intellectual property rights that are, at least in part, not adequately pleaded."

The document continues: "Sony might be frustrated by the fact that it has to follow the proper procedures and serve the parties that, as alleged, are actually the relevant actors. But that is no reason to allow a deficient lawsuit to proceed against defendants who are not responsible for the infringing conduct alleged." This part seemingly alludes to an argument Tencent made previously: "Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies."

Sony did respond before, explaining that Tencent "and the entities it owns and/or controls have engaged in conduct that infringes SIE's intellectual property" and therefore it's not such a "grab-bag," after all. Back to the current document, though, where Tencent goes on to say, "The Complaint should be dismissed because Sony has failed to demonstrate that this Court can exercise personal jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings," and more.

It "has failed to allege any specific facts supporting its claims against any of the three Served Defendants, has failed to plead essential elements of its trademark claims, and has failed to demonstrate that its chief claim – development of an allegedly infringing video game – is ripe for adjudication," according to Tencent. The company later reiterates this, writing, "Sony alleges no facts, nor introduces any supplemental evidence…"

Throughout its new response, Tencent makes various arguments about how Sony "fails to show purposeful direction," why "exercising personal jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings is not reasonable, how "Sony fails to allege any specific conduct by the served defendants," and much more. The company also notably replies to Sony's allegations of Tencent's "copying of Horizon's protected elements" in Light of Motiram, specifically Aloy.

"Fame does not create a trademark; to qualify as a trademark, a mark must serve as a source identifier for a particular good or service," declares Tencent. Talk about heavy… and there's likely still quite a long road ahead for the legal battle between Sony and Tencent to unfold. To think it all started after Light of Motiram, which itself is described as an open-world survival game, caught people's eyes (and evidently, Sony's) for its similarities to Horizon Zero Dawn.

Although developer and Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest went on to scrub any sign of robot mastodons and Aloy lookalikes from its Steam page, it wasn't enough – and now, we've just got Sony's next response to anticipate, I suppose.

Looking for something to play? Here are a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

Earlier this year, Sony filed a lawsuit against Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and holding company Tencent, dubbing its project Light of Motiram a "slavish clone" – only for Tencent to later hit back with its own response.

In its reply, which came in September, Tencent called Sony's lawsuit "an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture." The situation unfolded after open-world survival game Light of Motiram was said to be a copy of Horizon Zero Dawn, prompting developer and Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest to scrub any sign of robot mastodons and Aloy lookalikes from its Steam page before officially responding.

It's not over yet, however. Sony has just responded with a 35-page rebuttal, dubbing the fellow studio's arguments "nonsense" and outlining its reasons. "The damage is done – and it continues," it reads. "SIE has already suffered injury by Tencent promoting its knock-off game, as made clear by the many instances of actual consumer confusion documented in the Complaint that Tencent does not – and cannot – challenge in its motion."

The response written on behalf of Sony continues, explaining that Tencent "and the entities it owns and/or controls have engaged in conduct that infringes SIE's intellectual property" – and Tencent's arguments against Sony's lawsuit have little legal standing: "On all points, Tencent's motion is meritless and should be denied." The opposition goes on to describe the history of Horizon Zero Dawn and Tencent's desire to create a spin-off of the successful game.

According to Sony, Tencent's requests to make a new Horizon title were actually denied: "SIE declined Tencent's proposal." This apparently didn't stop the company, though.

"Nonetheless, Tencent proceeded with its plan," as the new document describes. It goes on to state, "The copying was so egregious that numerous journalists and Horizon fans called Light of Motiram 'a major Horizon rip off,' 'an obvious knock off,' a 'copycat' with a main character that 'resembles Aloy to a tee,' and 'extremely similar to Horizon Zero Dawn.'"

Sony doubles down on this throughout its legal statement, emphasizing how "obvious and pervasive" Tencent's "copying of Horizon's protected elements" in Light of Motiram is – from its alleged Aloy clone to its post-apocalyptic world. There are a lot of points brought up within the 35 pages, as lengthy as they are, but it all boils down to one thing: Sony's request for Tencent's motion from September to now be dismissed.

"For the forgoing reasons," the new opposition from Sony concludes, "the Motion to Dismiss should be denied in its entirety." There's no telling yet where the case will go next or what Tencent will say – but for now, it does appear Light of Motiram is still in the works.

Looking for something to play? Here are a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

Earlier this year, Sony filed a lawsuit against Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and holding company Tencent, alleging that its project Light of Motiram a "slavish clone" – now, Tencent has officially issued its own response.

Open-world survival game Light of Motiram was said by Sony to be a copy of Horizon Zero Dawn, prompting developer and Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest to scrub any sign of robot mastodons and Aloy lookalikes from its Steam page. The company hadn't responded to Sony otherwise at the time, however – but it has now, as reported by The Game Post. In its response to the lawsuit, Tencent outlines why it believes Sony has overstepped.

"Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony's game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs," reads the statement. "At bottom, Sony's effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property." Tencent doesn't stop there.

"It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony's exclusive domain," it continues. "In Sony's telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is 'like no fictional world created before [or] since.'" According to Tencent, this claim is "startling" as "it is flatly contradicted by Sony's own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit."

Tencent declares that Sony's lawsuit "tellingly ignores these facts," and instead "tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets. By suing over an unreleased project that merely employs the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon," like Breath of the Wild and Outer Wilds, "Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions."

Tencent cites examples of Horizon Zero Dawn's own devs' comparisons between the Sony game and others before it, like an instance in which art director Jan-Bart van Beek said it was similar in concept to 2013 title Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. "Long before this lawsuit was filed," explains the company, "the developers of Horizon Zero Dawn publicly acknowledged that the very same game elements that, today, Sony claims to own exclusively, were in fact borrowed from an earlier game."

Furthermore, Tencent says Sony's lawsuit targeted the incorrect entities and is therefore not legally valid. "None of the served defendants develop and market the Light of Motiram video game that Sony alleges infringes its intellectual property in the Horizon franchise," reads the response from Tencent. Light of Motiram is in development under Polaris Quest, whereas Tencent Holdings Ltd. simply stands as a parent company.

"Sony's threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump these Defendants together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue," continues the document. "Sony's vague allegations against 'Tencent' or 'Defendants' generally cannot substantiate the claims it brings against Tencent America, Proxima Beta US, or Tencent Holdings specifically."

There's also timing. Light of Motiram isn't set to release until 2027, with Tencent arguing that Sony's lawsuit is therefore built on hypotheticals of what the game "might" look like or what the sued companies "might" do with it. "The alleged infringements have not occurred and may in fact never occur," as the company describes in its statement to Sony. There's no telling just yet what will come of it all, but "Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., and Tencent Holdings respectfully request dismissal of the claims alleged against them in the Complaint."

The response from Tencent was only issued yesterday, whereas Sony's initial lawsuit arrived in late July this year. It may be some time before another statement comes from either side – but for now, it does look like Light of Motiram is still in the works.

Looking for something to play? Here are a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

Light of Motiram, the Horizon Zero Dawn lookalike that, seemingly, the entire games industry clowned on after its reveal last year, has now officially drawn the ire of Sony, which is suing Tencent for allegedly ripping off its Horizon IP.

First reported by Reuters, the suit calls Light of Motiram a "slavish clone" of the Horizon games, which started with Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017. Sony skewers the gameplay, themes, and art style, among other details. The suit also reveals that Sony refused an offer from Tencent last year to collaborate on a new Horizon game.

Light of Motiram is in the works for PC at Tencent subsidiary Polaris Quest. Where Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel Horizon Forbidden West focused on open-world action and narrative in a lush setting filled with robotic animals, Light of Motiram has been billed as more of a Palworld-like survival game where you tame mechanical animals called – seriously – Mechanimals.

Base building, co-op, and Mechanimal customization are said to be core to Light of Motiram, whereas Horizon was about protagonist Aloy and her journey and abilities.

Genre differences aside, the look and theme of Light of Motiram have earned it some critics. Countless people have made the argument that Sony is now making in court: this looks a lot like Horizon, from the bow-equipped huntress look of the main characters, down to specific screenshots like the above. (The fact that the reveal trailer sees a little floating robot revive your character like a Ghost from Destiny probably doesn't help, as Sony paid $3.6 billion for Destiny developer Bungie).

Both games feature tribes of humans using a mix of primitive and futuristic technology in a world where, to quote the Light of Motiram Steam page, "Earth and human civilization as we once knew it are gone." Many machine designs use similar frames and color accents. You'd be forgiven for mistaking many Mechanimals for some of the machines from Horizon; the Broadheads, Thunderjaws, Tallnecks, and Longlegs seem especially close to their newly manufactured Tencent cousins.

"I am colossally amused there is no shame left," Japanese games analyst Serkan Toto said of Light of Motiram's reveal last November.

Calling something a ripoff online is quite different to proving material IP infringement in court, but this lawsuit didn't exactly come out of nowhere. Per Reuters, Sony is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an order that would block Tencent from violating its IP rights.

We've reached out to Sony for comment.

Horizon and The Last of Us 2 star says there's a risk game devs will say "let's just have AI" do voices for NPCs and minor characters: "We're gonna be losing out on our next generation of great performers."

Death Stranding 2 is a graphical masterpiece and that's good news for Horizon Zero Dawn fans just as much as it is for Kojima stans.

We shouted out the gorgeous world in our Death Stranding 2 review, and players have been noticing just how good Kojima Productions' take on Australia looks since launch last week. There's clearly some technical wizardry at play, but that's also got fans of a very different studio excited.

Death Stranding 2 was built using the Decima engine, which Guerrilla Games, the developer of Horizon Zero Dawn, created. First used for Killzone: Shadow Fall, the engine hasn't been handed out very often since then - outside of Guerilla, who used it for Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, and a VR sports game, Decima has only been utilized by Supermassive Games for Until Dawn, and by Kojima Productions for the Death Stranding games.

That means it's been a few years since we've really seen the engine in action. Its last outing was more than two years ago, when Decima got a chance to flex on the PS5-exclusive Horizon Forbidden West expansion, Burning Shores. Guerilla has long been known as a studio that pushes the graphical envelope, but it seems that Kojima Productions has spent the last two years working out how to get even more out of the Decima engine.

That's excellent news for Aloy fans, however, as the progress that Kojima and co make on Decima is likely to be shared with Guerrilla. That's a detail that hasn't gone unacknowledged by fans, who have started discussing how the advancements being made in Death Stranding might manifest in the Horizon Forbidden West sequel that Guerrilla has been hinting at since 2022. Taking the five-year gap between the first two Horizon games, we might not see Horizon 3 until 2027, but if this is how far the Decima engine has come in the last two years, imagine how much further it might go in the next two.

Hideo Kojima says "I'm happy with the scores, thank you" as Death Stranding 2 settles at 90 on Metacritic, overcoming his fears that it might be too likable.

Veteran actor Ashly Burch is known for many roles at this point, ranging from punk rebel Chloe Price in the indie gem Life is Strange to the pyromaniac Tiny Tina in the Borderlands games. One of her most recognizable roles in her impressive resume, however, is one she didn't believe she'd even gotten: Aloy, the outcast looking to save the world in Guerrilla's hit open-world RPG Horizon Zero Dawn.

According to Burch, she knew it was the role for the lead in a franchise but not much else. After not hearing back for so long, however, she assumed she "didn't get it." Then, the audition came through again, so she gave it one more shot and then before she knew it, Burch was doing a recording session for a short cinematic.

"(At this point) I hadn't seen anything, I hadn't seen any art, I hadn't seen any renders," Burch explains to Ginx TV. "But after bringing me in for this E3 demo, they were like 'do you wanna see what the game looks like?' and they showed me the gameplay, and my jaw dropped because it's such a gorgeous game."

Horizon Zero Dawn became a huge success, something that Burch immediately knew was in the cards after seeing the first looks at the game. "It really hit me in that moment, like, 'OH, this is a big deal.' This is gonna be a really big deal."

Horizon Zero Dawn's titular character, Aloy, has been a point of contention over the years, especially with the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, and its DLC, Burning Shores, where Aloy's queer identity is explored. Burch is no stranger to playing queer characters, and identifies with the queer community herself.

Even with the vitriol that having a queer woman as the lead of a game brought, Burch knew long before that development that she would have to step up and make sure she did Aloy justice due to her status as a female protagonist of a massive open-world game as Burch further explained.

"But I think Horizon was one of the first games of that type of scale where you could only play as Aloy. You can only play as a female character. And I definitely felt the responsibility of that, in that moment, where I was like, okay. I have to do a good job."

It's safe to say Burch did a good job considering that her first performance contributed to major success for Horizon Zero Dawn, which has led to a long line of follow-up installments for the franchise, including a recent remaster of Zero Dawn. While news is scarce on what's next for the series, fans will hopefully see Burch back in Aloy's shoes again in the coming years.

Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch responds to Sony's controversial AI Aloy by pushing for actor protections: "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI."

Ashly Burch, a prolific actor known for roles like Aloy in the Horizon games, Mel in The Last of Us 2, and Chloe Price in the Life is Strange series, is worried about AI displacement in the gaming industry, and in particular the idea of AI replacing human actors in lesser roles like NPCs and minor characters.

In a new episode of Ginx TV's The Games That Made Me series, Burch broaches the harrowing topic of the rapidly increasing presence of AI in video games, and she has a personal perspective on why that's particularly daunting for young actors trying to break into the scene.

"I am afraid of some developers trying to use AI to replace performers in roles that I cut my teeth on coming up," Burch says, adding that right now, she'd be "very surprised" and "horrified" to see "an entire open world game where every character was AI."

While that would indeed be horrifying, Burch argues that there's a greater and more immediate risk of more minor characters with fewer voice lines becoming voiced by AI. That would put inexperienced talent at risk of having an even harder time establishing a foothold in an already brutally competitive industry.

"I do think there is a risk of NPCs in those worlds or, you know, characters that are in multiplayer games that do callouts. Like, things that are maybe less sessions and maybe are not as narratively heavy," Burch said. "I could conceive of a world in which a dev might be like, 'yeah, let's just have AI do that…' if you cut away so many of these roles that younger performers need to cut their teeth and get their experience, we're gonna be losing out on our next generation of great performers."

Burch's comments are particularly pertinent now as video game actors who are participating in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, of which she's a part, are doing so primarily to protect against the unauthorized use of actors' performances through generative AI.

Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch responds to Sony's controversial AI Aloy by pushing for actor protections: "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI"

Earlier this week, footage of an AI-powered character prototype developed by Sony and modeled after Horizon Zero Dawn's Aloy leaked online. The game's community was immediately critical of the whole effort, and now Ashly Burch, the human actor behind Aloy's original performance, has published her own response.

"I saw the tech demo earlier this week," Burch says in an Instagram video. "Guerrilla reached out to me to let me know that the demo didn't reflect anything that was actively in development. They didn't use any of my performance for the demo, so none of my facial or voice data."

But still, "I feel worried," Burch says. "Not worried about Guerrilla specifically, or Horizon, or my performance, or my career specifically, even. I feel worried about this art form. Game performance as an art form."

Burch is part of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes against the video game industry, and a key component of those strikes is the demand for better protections against the unauthorized use of actors' performances through generative AI. "What we're fighting for is that you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form," Burch explains. "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI double."

The actor previously participated in the SAG-AFTRA video game strike of 2016-2017, which saw the union demanding residual payments and more transparency around the roles actors were being cast for. Notably, the strike left Burch unable to reprise her role as Chloe in Life Is Strange: Before the Storm until the game's DLC bonus episode.

The state of the negotiations in the current strike has had the union denouncing game industry proposals that are "still filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse." People like Resident Evil and Witcher 3 mocap director Steve Kniebihly remain confident that AI won’t be replacing real actors "anytime soon," but those concerns are a big part of why the strike is ongoing.

"I feel worried not because the technology exists, [and] not even because game companies want to use it, because of course they do – they always want to use technological advancements," Burch says. "I just imagine a video like this coming out that does have someone's performance attached to it – that does have someone's voice or face or movement – and the possibility that if we lose this fight, that person would have no recourse. They wouldn't have any protections, any way to fight back. That possibility, it makes me so sad."

As Sony trots out an AI-powered Aloy, Horizon Zero Dawn fans revel in the irony: "The entire game is a warning against this kind of nonsense."

Sony seems to be experimenting with the technology to create chatty, AI-powered characters that can respond to verbal questions during gameplay, as a leaked internal video has shown off a prototype of Horizon Forbidden West's Aloy doing just that.

The video – which has now been taken down from YouTube following a copyright strike – was revealed by The Verge (after being shared by an anonymous source), and is presented by Sharwin Raghoebardajal from PlayStation Studios Advanced Technology Group. He explains that the tech demo uses OpenAI's speech recognition model, Whisper, to turn voice into text, as well as Llama 3 and GPT-4 for "the conversation and decision making."

Furthermore, it uses Sony's own Emotional Voice Synthesis system to generate Aloy's speech, although Raghoebardajal adds that none of the "emotional settings" have been touched yet (and you can definitely tell). Finally, an internal system called Mockingbird is used to power Aloy's facial movements, converting audio to animation.

All that's to say that this is an AI-powered interactive character, through and through. The prototype, which we see running in Horizon Forbidden West, allows users to speak to Aloy both in an "interview" setting and during gameplay, to ask her questions about herself, her surroundings, and general gameplay mechanics. For example, while roaming the world, she's asked if she can see any enemies around her, and further prompted to explain what their weak spots are, and what weapon she's currently holding.

The whole thing feels slightly less unnerving while used in the game itself (largely due to the facial movements seen in the interview mode just looking a bit off), but the obviously synthesized voice is very offputting regardless. At least in this video, none of Aloy's personality comes across in her responses, either – there's certainly no illusion that it's actually Aloy responding to the questions, but perhaps that's due to the lack of "emotional settings" Raghoebardajal mentions. Not everyone was a fan of the actual character's quips and remarks in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, but I'd personally take those any day over this.

Of course, it's worth keeping in mind that, at this stage, this is just a tech demo to give an idea of "what is possible," according to Raghoebardajal. He acknowledges that "we will not go into whether this is fun for games, whether it even makes sense to talk to Aloy when you're her when playing the game, whether we even want to talk to the controller, or where we're going to get the memory from to run this all on a consumer console." Needless to say, there's no guarantee that this sort of thing is ever going to make it into an actual PlayStation game.

While you're here, be sure to check out our picks for the best PS5 games you can play now.

Contrary to an earlier report, it seems that the Horizon Zero Dawn MMO at NCSoft is still in the works, according to a follow-up article.

On Tuesday, it was reported that several games had been cancelled at NCSoft. One of them was simply known as H, which was believed to be a Horizon MMO. However, Gameranx spotted posts on ResetEra and Reddit that say otherwise. 

The original reporter of the MTN article that caused people to believe a Horizon MMO had been canceled, Seo Jeong-geun, later clarified that "The 'H' that I mentioned has nothing to do with Horizon."

ThisIsGame states "the company's MMORPG project using the Horizon IP is still going strong" (translation provided by DeepL). "We have confirmed that these reports [that the game was cancelled] are not true."

While it's always sad news when any game gets cancelled, MTN did report that developers at NCSoft were being moved to other projects rather than laid off, which is good. 

But this latest development also means Horizon fans should be happy as the game doesn't appear to be cancelled. Sony did, however, cancel two live-service games last week. A God of War game by Demon's Souls Remake studio Bluepoint and an untitled game from Day's Gone developer Bend Studios. Sony did region-lock Horizon Forbidden West on Steam, so it's not all good news.

I wrote at the time of my previous article, I can understand why Sony decided not to pursue a God of War live-service game, but Horizon's world seems well-suited to the MMO formula, so I'm glad it seems to still be going ahead. It's going to be a tough time for all the live-service games Sony is funding at the moment, though, as it seems to be reducing its efforts in the area following the closure of Concord just two weeks after its release.

In the meantime, check out all the upcoming video game release dates we're currently aware of.

Sony is keen to get more people on PSN and is porting a lot of games to PC, but it's shooting itself in the foot by region-locking games like Horizon Forbidden West that don't even require an account to play.

I don't understand PlayStation's PC strategy. At this point, I don't think it does either. Horizon Forbidden West is a game that doesn't require Steam users to connect a PSN account to play, yet a ResetEra user noticed it's been region-locked in countries that don't have access to PSN, such as Egypt, the Philippines, and North Korea. This might have made sense at launch, but it's been out on PC for ten months already.

SteamDB shows the full list of countries that now can't access the game, and they're all the ones you can't make a PSN account in. You can check on PlayStation's website to see if your country can get access to the online service.

Sony has previously stated forcing PC players to get PSN accounts can "invite pushback," but that it needs to make sure everyone is being civil and playing games properly, though that doesn't make much sense for single-player games like Horizon or Ghost of Tsushima.

Sony recently saw huge "pushback" when it forced Helldivers 2 players to connect a PSN account to the game on PC, and while it reversed the decision, it did still region-lock the game. I understand that it wants to grow PSN, but it's leaving money on the table here by blocking millions of gamers around the world from playing on PC.

The whole approach seems counter to Sony's apparent ambition to reach more PC players, because enforcing PSN linking to Steam bars a lot of gamers in a lot of countries. Hopefully it will change this practice soon.

In the meantime, check out our 50 most anticipated games this year – they're not PlayStation exclusive.

It's been a bad time for PlayStation live-service games, as now the Horizon MMO has reportedly been added to the growing list of canceled projects.

Last week, PlayStation reportedly canceled a live-service God of War game from Demon's Souls remake studio Bluepoint and cut a live service game from Bend Studios, the Days Gone developer. It's now been reported by MTN that some of NCSoft's games have been canceled, too, and ResetEra users believe one of the culled projects is the Horizon MMO.

According to translations provided by a ResetEra user, three of NCSoft's games have had their development halted following a "feasibility review." These are Pantera, H (thought to be the Horizon MMO), and J. Fortunately, it's reported that developers on these projects will be moved internally, not laid off like the devs at Jar of Sparks.

I'm not too sure what a live-service God of War game would look like, so it's not entirely surprising it got canceled, especially since Sony seems to be more cautious after the lackluster launch and subsequent cancelation of Concord, but a Horizon MMO could have been interesting. Guerrilla made a lush, rich world that seems ripe for the MMO space.

However, Elden Ring Nightreign is also due to launch this year, and who knows, it may have continued the Horizon curse and come out around the same time, so maybe Sony decided to cut its losses now. We don't know what goes on behind the scenes - work could have been behind schedule already, or maybe Sony didn't think it measured up to its expectations.

Whatever the case, it appears Sony is reneging on its live-service ambitions. I was always sceptical when the platform known for excellent single-player games announced it was going all in on volatile live-service titles. There are only so many hours in the week, and with behemoths like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft already taking up our time, who can add more live-service games to their roster?

In the meantime, check out all of the other upcoming video game release dates to see what other titles you have to look forward to.

Horizon Forbidden West, described in our own 2022 review as "nothing short of phenomenal," was largely well-received by fans of the original - but in terms of sheer sales, PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida reveals that he thought the sequel could have performed better.

Speaking in his first interview after departing from PlayStation in 2024, the former president of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony tells Kinda Funny Games that one game's sales figures, in particular, left him surprised: "The one I was a bit surprised [abou] in terms of the number of units [sold] was the second Horizon game." According to Yoshida, he expected the sequel to sell better as it came after an already well-established IP.

"Oftentimes, the second game does better because there are already millions of fans," he explains. This wasn't the case with Forbidden West, although Yoshida initially thought it might end up being so. "I love Horizon and the game did well, and I was hoping that the sequel would do even better in terms of sales. The game was bigger and great, but I don't think the second one did as many units as the first one."

In 2023, PlayStation reported that "the Horizon franchise has sold through more than 32.7 million units worldwide, of which Horizon Forbidden West has sold through over 8.4 million units." This would align nicely with what Yoshida says to Kinda Funny about the sequel's figures, with Zero Dawn having sold over 24.3 million units two years ago - at least 15.9 million more than Forbidden West had sold at the time.

Horizon Zero Dawn's multiplayer spinoff has big dreams, as Guerrilla confirms it's hoping to attract more than 1 million users

As whispers about the multiplayer Horizon game continue, it appears that developer Guerrilla Games could be expecting to deal with a lot of concurrent players, as a new job listing suggests it's looking to hire someone with experience handling at least one million global users.

Spotted by Game Rant, the job listing itself is for a senior platform engineer on Guerrilla's game engine, Decima. However, the page specifically mentions the "Online Infrastructure team" which "owns our Online Multiplayer Game infrastructure." Its "goal" is "to develop systems that enable game developers to reliably build and operate games on a global scale." It adds: "We are deeply invested in the implementation of industry best-practices in the areas of platform engineering and infrastructure management."

The person Guerrilla is looking to hire has a varied list of responsibilities – notably, they'll "own our platform services, improving service levels, incident response, on-call and other operational areas," and "collaborate with software engineers to enhance system performance and reliability." This might tie into the candidate criteria, with Guerrilla noting that it'd "like to hear" from candidates who have "proven experience on building and operating multi service, 1M+ user globally distributed systems across multiple public cloud providers." 

There's no mention of any specific game in the listing, so Guerrilla may be looking to strengthen its online multiplayer capabilities across the board, but by extension this would include the Horizon multiplayer game, too.

Like Game Rant points out, it might not be that Guerrilla is necessarily expecting to produce a game with a concurrent player count to rival Palworld's impressive launch, but perhaps just make sure that it's got plenty of room for error to account for surges of players. After all, there's little more frustrating than wanting to jump into a live-service game when it launches and being faced with issue after issue as the servers crumble under the pressure of trying to handle so many people. 

In 2022, Guerrilla Games was looking for staff to work on an "online Project set in Horizon's universe," but a more recent job listing even suggested that Guerrilla could be releasing a new game as soon as this year – could that be related at all?

I felt like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered didn't need to exist – but its $10 price tag is incredible value for an upgrade that's far more than a fresh coat of paint.

Guerrilla Games' Horizon series has always had the unfortunate bad luck of releasing in the shadow of a bigger game, prompting the internet to proclaim it cursed, but it now has the opportunity to rematch an old opponent. 

Horizon Zero Dawn first came out basically on top of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, its sequel Horizon Forbidden West was then overshadowed by another generational game in Elden Ring, and the recent Horizon Remaster was then sandwiched between both Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Monster Hunter Wilds' massive beta in October. Whether it's a coincidence or a curse is almost unimportant at this point - the internet has made a habit out of laughing at Horizon's poor release dates.

But Horizon's multiplayer spin-off (or one of them, at least) is reportedly gearing up for a release next year, according to job listings (thanks, Push Square) asking for "theoretical knowledge and practical experience to ensure the game is prepared for launch." That would mean it's right on track to once again bump into FromSoftware with its very own co-op spin-off: the recently-revealed Elden Ring Nightreign, which is also aiming for a 2025 release.

PlayStation and Bandai Namco would probably be unwise to release two competing multiplayer games near each other at all - just look how many live service games got swallowed this year - but it wouldn't feel like a proper Horizon launch if the internet couldn't make memes about its curse. Having them drop in the same vicinity might even lead to a Barbenheimer 'rising tides raise all ships' situation. Regardless, there's also the possibility that one or both are delayed to the year after, or either of them might launch into early access first. Who's to say?

Catch up with everything that was announced at The Game Awards 2024. 

The Horizon curse began life as an unfunny joke, then it became an entire internet meme, then it seemed like incredibly bad luck, and evidence of its actual existence now seems irrefutable as it's now going up against Dragon Age and a last-minute Monster Hunter Wilds beta. The Horizon series is haunted.

To catch up anyone who isn't terminally online, Horizon: Zero Dawn had the misfortune of launching too close to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild back in 2017. Though it still sold incredibly well, chatter about the game was essentially smothered by the colossal impact that Nintendo's first foray into open worlds had. Years later, Horizon: Forbidden West then came out a mere week before another genre-defining attention black hole called Elden Ring. 

Fast forward to now, and the curse seemed to have been all but confirmed when Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered grabbed an October 31 release date - the same day as Dragon Age: The Veilguard's launch. Fans were quick to point out that all three mainline Horizon games had a knack for releasing alongside a massive RPG series, but things got slightly worse this time.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is admittedly not quite as omnipresent as those other two mammoths, sure, and that's where Capcom came in. A mere week before Halloween, the publisher announced that the Monster Hunter Wilds beta would kick off on the very same day, meaning Horizon is now dealing with a double whammy.

SteamDB numbers for Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered don't paint the brightest picture as the open-world refresh pulled in just over 2,000 concurrent players. Meanwhile, Dragon Age: The Veilguard broke a record for developer BioWare with a 70,000 peak and the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is so monstrously popular that it's turning some players' games into a cursed PS1 vision. But there's not much need to worry if you're a fan of the robo-dinosaur series since Horizon's always been immune to the curse, sales-wise, and a remastered game from seven years ago probably isn't high-priority for many gamers up against a limited time beta and a sequel 10 years in the making.

Not a fan of all three? Check out the new games of 2024 and beyond for more. 

Fans have been looking at Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered with skepticism ever since it was first announced - it is, after all, an upgrade of a game that's just seven years old and one generation removed from current hardware, and one that remains quite a looker at that. But now one 9-second comparison clip is doing some serious work to convince people that the $10 upgrade fee is worthwhile.

The clip is part of a longer set of comparisons from Push Square, but this brief bit of footage broke out on social media because, well, the upgrade looks damn good. In the old game, we see Aloy stand on a set of pale gray rocks, looking out over murky water. In the remaster, there's far more detail on those rocks with moss and such, the water is clear and inviting, and in the distance there's far more detail in the grass and other vegetation.

I'm sold after seeing it, and judging by the response on Twitter, I'm not alone.

You could argue that the upgrade changes the mood of the scene, but there's no denying it's both a technical improvement and much more attractive looking. The new water tech is especially impressive, and was also a highlight last week when Digital Foundry's early analysis argued that the remaster is actually more akin to a proper remake. Does Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered need to exist? I guess that depends on how you define the word "need." But at a minimum, it's good to see the devs go above and beyond to make sure this upgrade is all that it can be in 2024.

I felt like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered didn't need to exist – but its $10 price tag is incredible value for an upgrade that's far more than a fresh coat of paint.

I was not sold on the idea of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. The original remains one of the best PS4 games, but with Sony's PS5 strategy focused more on upgrades than new games, I was extremely cynical about yet another single-generation remaster. Having looked a little closer now, however, I'm a little more faithful. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a peculiar sell, but if you're looking at that $10 upgrade fee and wondering if it's worth it, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I'm not going to try and convince you to buy Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered if you've never touched the series before. If primitive tribes hunting post-apocalyptic robot dinosaurs weren't enough to convince you in 2017, they won't be enough in 2024, even with the shiny coat of pain that comes from the remaster. Elsewhere, Sony's pricing shenanigans – raising the cost of the base version after announcing the upgrade pathway – are hardly an incentive either. I was quick to show my skepticism about whether Aloy really needed a remaster, and I still don't think this is the best way in for new players.

But if you're a proud owner of the original, the upgrade fee feels like a decent investment, especially if you're still yet to go beyond Horizon Zero Dawn's base game. The remaster contains (and borrows technology from) the excellent Frozen Wilds expansion, while bringing the original game in-line with the visuals of Horizon Forbidden West. I'm actually yet to check out the sequel for myself, but this is such a good PS5 upgrade of the original that it had me reflexively reaching for the glider that I know Aloy unlocks in her second outing - Zero Dawn Remastered feels so much like a current-gen game that it had me inventing current-gen features for this last-gen release.

Over the Horizon

I feel like I should clarify something: I am not someone generally impressed by visual tech in my games. I am not someone who agonizes over Performance Mode versus Quality Mode, or who particularly cares about 30 vs 60 fps. I am not interested in the chase for photorealism, because stylization is more interesting, more sustainable, and more future-proof than realistic graphics.This is true to such an extent that the entire time I was playing Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, my brain was telling me that this was exactly how the original game had looked on my base PS4. Clearly that wasn't the case, but it's funny how quickly you can mentally overwrite the past.

Thankfully, I knew going in that my brain was wrong. I knew that remaster studio Nixxes had done hours of new mocap and enhanced the lighting to make cutscenes more vibrant and lifelike. I knew it picked over the parts of the world that even Guerilla had run out of time to get to to ensure that every inch of it was up to scratch. I saw the way snow and sand now deformed under Aloy's feet, how the denser plant life reacts to her touch, how the streams and rivers that criss-cross her world are clearer than before, reflecting their world far better than in the original game.

There are some points where I think Nixxes has overdone it . Some of the cutscene mocap is doing a little too much given how stationery Aloy is by comparison, and while the hero lighting that spotlights the main focus of a given scene is an enhancement overall, it can be a little distracting in extreme closeups. Given the huge amount of work that's gone into highlighting those characters, I was also a bit disappointed to see a few places with clipping issues around cloth and hair. But Guerilla's world was already beautiful, and this handful of nitpicks certainly don't detract too much from how spectacular it looks now. Even something as simple as a lens flare blaring across the screen as the sun rises over the Embrace now looks astonishingly good.

Admittedly, I still had to have most of these changes pointed out to me, but that's what comes from having a brain that still believes Just Cause 2 on the PS3 remains the peak of open-world technology. Most people won't see most of the improvements for most of their playtime, but that's mostly because even though they look great, they blend so seamlessly with what I actually expect of a PS5 game that you're more likely to be swept along by the action than spend a huge amount of time stopping to smell the salvebrush. That's testament to how good this remaster is – an excellent game brought alongside its sequel, and a believable nextgen upgrade to a game that already looked beautiful. Is Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered a reason to reinvest in the base game at its inflated price? I don't think so. But is it worth $10? Easily. This is no thin coat of paint or simple frame-rate boost, but a careful, deliberate upgrade that rebuilds so many aspects of its world that it stretches the very definition of a remaster.

Horizon: Zero Dawn studio director explains what's actually changed in the last 7 years with side-by-side screenshots.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is almost here, and even if an already-pretty game getting a full-blown remaster less than eight years after its initial release might have turned a few heads, tech analysis from Digital Foundry suggests that it's worth the upgrade price. 

Although Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is being sold as a full $50 package for those who don't own the original, those who do have a copy already can spend $10 to upgrade to the remaster. This is the same strategy that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered uses, which also offers existing owners a $10 upgrade. So, is $10 worth it for what the remaster of Aloy's debut adventure offers? According to Digital Foundry's John Linneman, it's a firm yes. 

Rounding up his thoughts in his tech review of the game, Linneman admits that he's ultimately "pretty impressed" despite being "very skeptical" previously. "I was not sure I wanted to see a studio pour presumably years of work into remaking a game at the expense of making new content. In the end, however, this turned out to be a really good opportunity for Nixxes to produce something different than their usual PC conversions," he explains, noting that the remaster being developed alongside other PC ports "suggests that [Nixxes was] a perfect fit for this project after all."

He continues: "Furthermore, if you already own the game, I think 10 bucks is a fair asking price for this upgrade when considering how much has been added. Too much work has been poured into this to offer it as a free upgrade, I think it's fair to say."

So then, that's promising. Linneman also noted that the difference between Nixxes Software's overhaul and the original game are so significant that it's almost more comparable to the remakes of Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus than a regular ol' remaster. Looking at some of the comparison screenshots, you can certainly see why he might think this, but fans will be able to judge with their own eyes when the game launches on PS5 and PC on October 31.

One of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered's biggest glow-ups is because of a malfunction in the original that got missed because the open world was too big for Guerrilla to check everywhere.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered continues the trend of big first-party PlayStation games getting upgrades they may not actually need - but that's no slight on the work of the devs bringing these upgrades to life. An independent tech analysis of the new version suggests it's a major improvement, and one that almost feels like a proper remake.

"The changes are significant enough that I'm not even sure the word remaster is the correct one here," according to Digital Foundry's John Linneman. "Horizon Remastered reminds me more of Bluepoint's work on Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls. Perhaps not that ambitious, but it's more in that ballpark than not. There's this sense that the team went through with a fine-tooth comb, and made sure they redid basically everything in the game to look properly modern." 

The visual upgrades are subtle in some cases, but striking in others - the improved water effects, particularly the reflections, are a particular highlight. Terrain is now far more detailed, and the foliage has seen a big revamp, actually reacting to Aloy as she steps through it. The most noticeable differences are to character models, which seem to retain the same level of polygonal detail as the original, but now have much more realistic skin and hair, which makes a downright transformative difference. Plus there's a ton of new motion capture adding far more life to the game's basic cutscenes.

I'll admit that even as a proper graphics snob with a PS5 Pro pre-order in, there are points in the comparison footage where I'm having trouble telling the difference between old and new. But then there's a shot of a dialog sequence with character close-ups or a dip into the water and the difference looks night and day.

Horizon Zero Dawn was already a fantastic-looking game, and in the seven years since its original release it doesn't really feel like there's been a graphical leap we can truly call generational. But this kind of close examination shows just how many improvements there are to be made to a game this relatively modern, and the results are impressive - if you know what to look for. 

These are the upcoming PS5 games you need to know about.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered – a shiny new version of Guerrilla Games' 2017 open-world adventure – is right around the corner, and it turns out that one of its greatest glow-ups is actually the result of a lighting malfunction from the original being fixed.

Even though the original game isn't all that old, certain comparisons show that there's a pretty noticeable visual difference between it and the 2024 version, like this one highlighted by a fan on Twitter below. The two screenshots are taken in the exact same location and at the same time of day, but in the remaster, everything looks far more crisp and vibrant, with the greenery in particular really standing out. Responding to this, Guerrilla Games' studio and art director Jan-Bart van Beek has explained why there's been such a change. 

"Horizon Zero Dawn was our first open-world game," he begins. "It featured locations over a 30+ square kilometer area in a 24-hour light cycle. It was extremely hard to check every nook and cranny of the world to see if the lighting functioned correctly. This was a location that malfunctioned."

Does that mean that all of the other locations with malfunctioning lighting have been fixed in the remaster, too? "We can only hope," Guerrilla's studio director teases with a wink. Fingers crossed – it'd certainly help justify it getting a remastered version less than eight years after its original launch, even if that feels like an age in comparison to The Last of Us Part 2's three and a half year wait for a glow-up. 

Horizon: Zero Dawn developer's next game may be Horizon Online as a third single-player game looks "a ways off."

Horizon Zero Dawn and its successors are very different games to Guerrilla Games' FPS series, Killzone, and according to the studio's art director, it was purposely made to be "the opposite" in order to "refresh the palette."

Speaking to The Washington Post in a new interview about the upcoming blocky spin-off, Lego Horizon Adventures, art director and studio veteran Roy Postma, who's been at Guerrilla Games for the entire lifespans of the Killzone and Horizon series so far, reveals that, simply, the devs needed a change from Killzone. "We were done with it as a team. As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette," Postma says. "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," Postma adds. 

That latter point ties into something mentioned in the same interview by Lego's product lead for branded games, Kate Bryant. As a character, protagonist Aloy "can speak to that wide audience because she has that strength of character that can resonate with a younger audience." Of course, that's particularly relevant as the release of the family-friendly Lego Horizon Adventures draws closer, which is notably launching on Nintendo Switch as well as PC and PS5. It's hard to imagine Killzone being transformed into something similarly inviting to younger children. With that said, speaking of the upcoming Lego game, Postma admits: "Making people laugh when they play the game, that was new for us."

Does all this mean that there's no hope of Killzone ever making a return? It's worth pointing out that Postma says the devs "were done," which doesn't necessarily mean that they still are, even if it definitely sounds like Horizon was the studio's favorite, at least for a while. Hey, at least Killzone was referenced in one of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's cosmetics, right? Right?

Lego Horizon Adventures hands-on: Post-apocalyptic robo-whacking is a better fit for blockification than you'd think.

Horizon Online is reportedly the next game in PlayStation's open-world robot-dinosaur series, not a single-player threequel.

After Horizon: Zero Dawn, sequel Horizon: Forbidden West, and now, just seven years later, Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered, many people expected series developer Guerrilla Games to close out the trilogy it began with a third mainline game. Rumors have long circulated that multiplayer projects were bubbling in the background, but it now seems they might be coming sooner than expected.

That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who recently dished on the unannounced project with the Spawncast podcast. "Horizon Online is their next product, not the third single-player game, looks like," Schreier says. "So, that one may be a ways off."

For clarity, Horizon Online is seemingly the co-op multiplayer romp that Guerrilla Games is developing itself, and the company's director Jan-Bart van Beek previously said it was "a massive shift for the studio." That shouldn't be confused with the Horizon MMO that Sony is apparently making in collaboration with NCSoft.

"Sony-PlayStation's live service initiative was no joke," Schreier continues, "everybody was like, 'it's live service games all around.' Horizon is one of the few ones that hasn't been canceled or hasn't come out and flopped the way Concord did. A lot of people are working on that."

While Helldivers 2 soared and Concord crashed, Sony scaled back its ambitious plans and scrapped several live service games. The publisher previously had a dozen in development, but has since publicly canned The Last of Us Online and reportedly binned a Twisted Metal reboot. Here's hoping things go smoother for Horizon.

Netflix’s Horizon Zero Dawn series was also reportedly scrapped after allegations against Umbrella Academy’s showrunner. 

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered was finally unveiled at PlayStation's State of Play after months of rumors and internet grumbles about how we don't need to re-release games that still look brand spanking new, but one developer has explained exactly what's changed in the upcoming remaster.

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered's announcement trailer promised that the 2017 robo-dinosaur romp would be brought up to the same visual quality as its more recent sequel, Horizon: Forbidden West, with over ten hours of new motion capture performance added to scenes where the camera really zooms right up into character's faces. Plus, improved textures and proper DualSense support.

Otherwise, the trailer kind of struggled to properly emphasize how dramatic the Remastered changes might be because, well, Horizon: Zero Dawn was already a lush video game at release and its free PS5 update only solidified that further. Most people were also probably watching a subpar version of the trailer on social media, making those comparisons even murkier. 

Guerrilla Games' co-studio director and art director Jan-Bart van Beek then chimed in on social media to delve into the nuts and bolts of what's actually new, and it turns out the team actually transplanted Aloy's entire model from Forbidden West into Zero Dawn. A nice bit of added continuity between the two games since they're only set six months apart.

"We also reworked the character lighting to match the look of [Horizon: Forbidden West] and improve skin tones," Beek tweeted. "Hair shaders are also improved. The slight blurring you see between PS4 and PS5 is because the PS4 image here has motion blur turned off," he says of the side-by-side comparison above.

Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered comes out as a $10 upgrade for existing owners on October 31, continuing the series' cursed streak of releasing in the shadow of an even bigger franchise, this time with Dragon Age. Discussions around whether this remaster was really necessary are still up in the air, especially since The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered added an entirely new mode and was still leashed to this same discourse, but we'll see how it shakes up for ourselves on Halloween.

Horizon: Zero Dawn’s facelift comes out just in time for PlayStation’s similarly beefed-up console. Check out everything we know about the PS5 Pro. 

The Horizon curse appears to show no sign of stopping, as the Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered release date continues the series' tradition of clashing with massive franchise releases.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was officially unveiled during last night's PlayStation State of Play. Its existence wasn't a huge surprised - the project leaked via the ESRB and had already been rumored as far back as 2022. What did come as a surprise, however, was its October 31 - the same day as Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

It didn't take fans long to note that that's just another entry in what's quickly becoming known as the 'Horizon Curse'. All three of the mainline releases (i.e. not VR spin-off Call of the Mountain or Lego mash-up Horizon Adventures) have released extremely close to a major RPG, often one from a series far more established than Aloy's.

In 2017, the original Horizon Zero Dawn released just a week before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which went on to sweep GOTY discussions. In 2022, Horizon Forbidden West doubled-down, releasing a week before Elden Ring, which was similarly dominant when it came to end of the year accolades. Now, with the remaster releasing on the exact same day as Dragon Age, it seems that pattern has been wholly baked-in - which does at least seem to be good news for BioWare.

None of this has had too damaging an effect on Aloy - the Horizon franchise has shipped more than 32 million sales, with "millions more" having played the game via services like PlayStation Plus. With spin-offs, remasters, and sequels all under their belt, the Horizon Curse isn't too likely to upset developer Guerilla, but perhaps it'll look for a slightly more empty release window for whatever its next game is.

Horizon Zero Dawn studio director reveals their last-minute panic before original E3 reveal.

It's official: Horizon Zero Dawn is getting a PS5 remaster. The long-rumored (and occasionally leaked) new edition was revealed during today's PlayStation State of Play broadcast. 

This looks like a pretty major upgrade, as the devs have done ten hours of new motion capture and brought the game up to a similar level of visual fidelity to its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. The Horizon Zero Dawn remaster launches October 31 on PS5 and PC. If you own the game on PS4, you'll be able to upgrade for a discounted price of $9.99 USD.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered appeared earlier this month in a quickly deleted ESRB listing, and has been rumored as far back as 2022. In both cases, fans were quick to ask whether the game actually needed a remaster, but that's a conversation that really came to a head when The Last of Us 2 Remastered was released earlier this year - less than four years after the game's original launch. Horizon Zero Dawn is, at least, quite a bit older than that.

But all of Sony's PS5 remaster projects have been a bit weird, given that we've grown accustomed to so many free upgrades on the new console, including the 60 FPS patch for Horizon itself. I'm just left wondering if Sony will at least wait for PS6 before the inevitable Horizon Forbidden West remaster comes around.

If you're looking for the latest and greatest to enjoy on Sony's console, check out our guide to all the most notable upcoming PS5 games.

A Horizon Zero Dawn remaster has appeared on game rating site the ESRB.

The listing, which appeared on the USA's Entertainment Software Rating Board this morning, is for 'Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered', leaving little to the imagination about what Guerilla might be planning for its robo-dino open-world RPG debut.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is listed by the ESRB for both PS5 and PC. That's not too surprising given Sony's recent push for PC releases, which saw Horizon Forbidden West arrive on PC earlier this year, less than two years since its launch in 2022. The original version of Horizon Zero Dawn had also made the jump to PC in 2020, three years after it launched for PS4 in 2017. Still, Sony hasn't traditionally gone day-and-date for its single-player PC ports, so it'll be interesting to see whether that changes here.

What does seem likely is a reigniting over the debate about what does or does not need a remaster. Sony has appeared particularly swift to re-release some of its biggest hits over recent years, culminating in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered in November 2023 - just 3.5 since years since that game's original release. Horizon Zero Dawn is a little older than that, but seven years is still not the kind of gap that consigns games to the history books, especially when those games have had a PC port and a sequel which then received its own PC port in that timeframe.

There's no sign of a release date or any extra features attached to the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster. Sony does tend to opt for added value when it comes to re-launches, most notably The Last of Us Part 2's roguelike mode, and given that we're still without an official announcement from Guerilla, it seems likely we'll learn more about what this particular remaster is bringing to the table at some point in the relatively near future.

In case you thought we were light on Horizon games at the moment, remember there's also the blocky Lego Horizon Adventures on the way, too. 

Netflix's Horizon Zero Dawn show is reportedly no longer going forward after a string of allegations surrounding planned showrunner Steve Blackman. 

Netflix and series owner Sony first announced plans to adapt Aloy's nearish future escapades last year in a live-action series featuring probably wonky CGI for the starring dinosaur robots. Casting news, details, and even a title were all under wraps, but we did know that Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman would be leading the project, rumored to have been called Horizon 2074.

Rolling Stone's Cheyenne Roundtree now reports that the Horizon Zero Dawn series has been scrapped, alongside another original series that Blackman was developing with the streamer, after allegations that he created a chaotic and toxic workplace. Yesterday's Rolling Stone report states that twelve former staff members accuse the showrunner of a "long history of toxic, bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behavior" in the workplace, while Blackman's spokesperson says the claims are "entirely untrue" and "completely absurd." Neither Netflix nor Sony have commented on the situation or the state of the Horizon TV show. 

Horizon's live-action hopes might be shakey at the moment, but last year developer Guerrilla Games assured that the series is "going to be continuing it for a very long while" after 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn and 2022's sequel Horizon Forbidden West. And those aren't just empty promises. Brick-based spin-off Lego Horizon Adventures is set to come out sometime this year; Guerrilla Games has been working on an online offshoot for the dinosaur-tamer, which is separate from the long-rumored Horizon MMO that's been floating about as a whisper for years. 

Check out our Lego Horizon Adventures preview to see what makes it work so damn well.

Bucking a 26-year-old trend, PlayStation is releasing one of its own IP, Lego Horizon Adventures, on rival console Nintendo Switch.

Xbox, of course, has been slowly but surely ramping up its efforts to make some of its biggest IP cross-platform, most notably with Sea of Thieves' PS5 debut in April. Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush also hit PS4 and PS5 in April while Obsidian hits Pentiment and Grounded crossed over to both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. A report from February claimed Starfield, Bethesda's Indiana Jones game, and other Xbox exclusives were lined up for PS5 launches, but that's as of yet unconfirmed.

As observed by GamesIndustry.biz, Lego Horizon Adventures will be the first PlayStation IP released on a Nintendo platform since Wipeout 64 launched exclusively on the N64 in 1998. 

There are a couple caveats I want to go over just to contextualize all of this somewhat. The first is that MLB: The Show is a series developed by the PlayStation-owned developer San Diego Studio and published by PlayStation, and that's been cross-platform since 2021. However, the distinguisher here is that Lego Horizon Adventures is actually a PlayStation IP, at least as far as it's considered part of the Horizon series, whereas MLB The Show is a licensed IP as part of MLB Advanced Media. Basically, Aloy is a PlayStation character and Major League Baseball players aren't.

That's the perfect segue into my next caveat. While Lego Horizon Adventures' main character is undoubtedly a PlayStation icon, this is also explicitly a Lego crossover game, which to me makes its release on Nintendo Switch considerably less surprising and less indicative of any broader strategy at Sony. It's a noteworthy release regardless, but it doesn't carry the same significance as, say, The Last of Us releasing on Xbox or indeed, Starfield coming to PS5. Sony has been cozying up to PC in recent years, but whether Lego Horizon Adventures is the first crack in the floodgate of PlayStation IP coming to other consoles remains to be seen.

In the meantime, here are the best Switch games and the best PS5 games you can play right now.

In Lego Horizon Adventures, if you can see something, you can recreate it in real-life,  because "every single asset" is made from real bricks.

As the name suggests, Lego Horizon Adventures is a blocky retelling of the first game in Guerilla's series. Minifigures replace mocap for characters like Aloy and Rost, and machines are made of plastic blocks rather than steel plates. But that blocky recreation continues worldwide - in an interview with GamesRadar+, narrative director James Windeler tells me that "every single asset" is made of real Lego pieces.

That's an apparent first for a Lego game like this, and Windeler goes on to explain that it was only possible thanks to a team of Master Builders who helped recreate some of the game's most complex machines. If you have the bricks - and the expertise - you should be able to create even the mighty Thunderjaw by yourself, exactly as it exists in the game.

Windeler also says that Lego Horizon Adventures exists due to Guerilla's history with Lego through the pre-existing Horizon Zero Dawn Tallneck set that launched in May 2022. On top of that, many devs at the studio "have rooms full of Lego," meaning that "there was definitely a passion" to do something even more in-depth with the toy company.

I went hands-on with Lego Horizon Adventures at Summer Game Fest, so you can find out more about how this peculiar, charming game came about with my Lego Horizon Adventures preview.

Spoilers - we might need to update our list of the best Lego games pretty soon.

The Horizon series is apparently about to take a very different, blocky direction, as it's been claimed that it's getting a Lego action-adventure spin-off game that's set to be revealed this week.

Rumors of a project called Lego Horizon Adventures first began circulating back in May courtesy of leaker Kurakasis, but reliable leaker Billbil-kun (in a Dealabs article translated via Google and DeepL) has now added fuel to the leaky fire with a slew of additional (unconfirmed) information. 

For a start, it's claimed that the game will be revealed on June 8 in the CET time zone, which suggests it could be shown as part of the Summer Game Fest showcase. Pre-orders will reportedly go live shortly after. Although Billbil-kun has not revealed a release window, they add that it'll be coming to both PS5 and PC on day one, complete with cross-platform co-op (although it apparently supports single-player, too). 

Not much else has been given away, other than the fact that players will reportedly be required to have a PlayStation Network account if they play on PC – something that everyone has become very familiar with lately following Sony's decision to make account linking on Helldivers 2 mandatory, before making a u-turn due to community backlash. Billbil-kun also adds that there's apparently an 'in-game purchases' option somewhere in the game, too, but they don't know what will actually be on offer there. 

For now, we'll just have to wait and see if the rumors are true, and according to Billbil-kun, we won't have to wait long at all. It'd be a surprising spin-off, but then again, it'd sort of make sense given that we've already had an official Lego and Horizon crossover in the form of the Tallneck set. Anyway, we may well be seeing a virtual version of it very soon. 

Be sure to check out our handy Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule to keep track of all the upcoming showcases, as well as when and where to watch them.

The macabre and murky world of Dark Souls is the setting of a brand new manga titled Dark Souls: Redemption, which aims to channel the spooky, scary vibes of the classic fantasy games with an all-new, original story.

Dark Souls: Redemption was announced by surprise on social media by publisher Yen Press, which also shared a pre-order page for the manga, which is due out in August. And it's a welcome surprise indeed for FromSoftware fans who may have been hoping for something different from Elden Ring's manga adaptation, which cranked the game's inherent silliness to 11 for an adventure that put comedy and parodies first.

In the case of Dark Souls: Redemption, writer Julien Blondel and artist Shonen will tell the tale of a woman whose dive into the brutal, uncompromising world of Dark Souls somewhat mirrors the path followed by players - but with a strange twist that's a perfect fit for the creeping dread that characterizes the atmosphere of the games.

"Doomed by a past long forgotten, resolved to save what she once held dear. The flame is lit. A nameless woman wakes. Roused from the tomb by a past she cannot recall, she sets out into a barren, unfamiliar landscape," reads Yen Press' description of Dark Souls: Redemption.

"The protector follows. Bound by oath and honor, he safeguards her against the dangers that draw near with the same ferocity he does the secrets of his past," it continues. "The Gray Cinders gather in their tower, called by the fire to complete their solemn duty. A colossus, incarnate of death, stirs with the bones beneath the scarred grounds. And a nightmare-scourge of a bygone era-returns to exact its toll. The fate of this land hangs in the balance, as their journey unfolds in this original Dark Souls story!"

Even better for fans hungry for more Dark Souls content, Yen Press is billing this as Dark Souls: Redemption Vol. 1, presumably indicating at least at the likelihood of a second volume on the horizon.

Dark Souls: Redemption Vol. 1 goes on sale August 27.

There's plenty of creepy manga (and western comics) on our list of the best horror comics of all time.

A lot of work has been put into the clouds in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, so much so that technology has been in development since Horizon Zero Dawn. 

As revealed by Guerrilla community manager Narae Lee via the PlayStation Blog, the artists working on the Horizon Forbidden West DLC have been dedicated to making the clouds in Aloy's world the best they can be for several years now. 

"In video games, clouds can help convey a mood," the post reads, "along with the abundance of green, clear waters and cragged cliffs, the clouds of Horizon punctuate the world with emotion. To achieve this, they had to be more than white wisps far above Aloy's head; they needed movement, variety, and definition."

The post gives a technical insight into how Guerrilla created the Burning Shores skyline and how they built upon what was already developed for Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017. According to the post, in 2015 principal FX artist Andrew Schneider partnered with principal tech programmer at Guerrilla Nathan Vos, and together the pair developed the volumetric cloud system that we're all familiar with in the original game. 

Fast forward to developing Horizon Forbidden West, and the pair needed to build upon the foundation they had established for the first game. "We looked to artists who were part of the luminism movement for inspiration, like 19th-century painter Albert Bierstadt," Schneider explains, "these painters had mastered the interplay between clouds and the land beneath, using light and detail to create space, producing truly dramatic landscape paintings."

"The cloud systems that we developed for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West were fast because they didn't store clouds as 3D objects, but rather instructions on creating 3D clouds from limited 2D information," Schneider continues in the post. Thanks to the PS5, and its ability to handle larger datasets, the pair were able to write a voxel cloud renderer that could live up to their standards and "actually allow the player to fly through highly detailed cloud formations."

Guerrilla feels it's important to make the experience of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores fun even outside of the main gameplay, as the post explains: "The clouds are not simply immersive scenery but an explorable landscape in themselves. Among the clouds, players will be able to explore tunnels, caves, and other surprises that make for fun flying."

It seems players have a lot to look forward to when the Burning Shores DLC releases exclusively for PS5 (sorry PS4 players) on April 19, 2023.

Thinking about getting started with Aloy's latest adventure? Take a look at our Horizon Forbidden West tips before you get started. 

Burning Shores pre-orders are now live, and they're giving us some long-awaited information about the price and content of the Horizon Forbidden West DLC.

We now know that Burning Shores will cost $19.99 / €19.99 / £15.99. You can pay that price right now for a pre-order which will get you access to two unique digital bonuses: the Blacktide Dye Outfit, which you can pick up from the first dye merchant you meet, and the Blacktide Sharpshot Bow, which will be with the first shopkeeper in the Burning Shores.

Burning Shores will take place after the main story, as the PlayStation Blog has revealed. That means you will need to have completed the main quest in order to hop into the DLC. Once you've completed the final mission, Singularity, Aloy will receive a call over her Focus to lead you to the start of the expansion. That's a notable contrast from The Frozen Wilds, the previous Horizon expansion, which is accessible midway through Zero Dawn and serves as a side story.

As previously announced Burning Shores will launch on April 19, and will take you to a new region set in the volcanic ruins of Los Angeles. Given how little we've heard about the expansion since its initial announcement, some fans have been surprised that Burning Shores hasn't been delayed, but it seems the devs are fully committed to that date with pre-orders now live. Unlike Forbidden West itself, Burning Shores is a PS5 exclusive, which the devs say is going to make the DLC look even better.

For more upcoming PS5 games, you know where to click.

Horizon Forbidden West fans are genuinely a little bit surprised that the game's Burning Shores DLC hasn't been delayed.

Yesterday, a new blog post discussed how leaving the PS4 behind will make Burning Shores look even better. That's been pretty well-received by most fans (although the ones still playing on PS4 are a bit disappointed), but a key part of the community response has been one of pleasant surprise, as a period of significant radio silence had led many to believe a delay was on the cards.

Burning Shores was announced in December 2022, with its release date of April 19, 2023. However, we'd not seen or heard anything about the expansion between its announcement and yesterday's update, even as Horizon Forbidden West's anniversary celebrations rolled around last month.

On Reddit, user dwoller said that, with the new post, "people can stop thinking it's delayed," suggesting that "people were just taking no news as bad news when it was likely just that they were focusing on [Call of the Mountain]. Another user, clydethepotatortoise, said that "my mind is on a rollercoaster between excitement at the confirmation that it's not delayed and slight disappointment that we didn't get any new visual teasers."

Other fans have expressed confidence that a delay is unlikely, while a few others are still puzzling over how little Guerilla has shown off. Others still, however, continue to get hyped for a mysterious boss fight alluded to in the blog post - likely the massive Horus Titan lurking in the Hollywood Hills.

Horizon Forbidden West sits high up on our list of the best PS5 games, so this DLC comes hotly-anticipated.

Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC is sailing to new visual heights thanks to ditching a PS4 launch.

Speaking to PlayStation Blog, Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge explains how the Burning Shores DLC is taking advantage of the PS5. The new DLC will mark the first release in the Horizon franchise that's ditched a last-gen launch, as Forbidden West arrived on both PS5 and PS4 in 2022.

"One of our key priorities with Horizon games is to add a ton of detail and richness to our environments," de Jonge begins. "On Horizon Forbidden West, everything we added or increased was something we'd need to have a plan around how to optimize for PS4 as well." 

"On Burning Shores, since we can just focus on PS5, we've been able to charge forward and we're really excited about what we've been able to pull off in creating this stunning post-post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles," the game director continued.

de Jonge then explains that LA and its surroundings are "incredibly detailed" and therefore require a "lot of processing power as well as fast streaming technology to run properly." Burning Shores could be unlike anything we've seen before in the Horizon franchise, then.

Horizon Forbidden West's director also talks up on battle that requires a "LOT" of memory and processing power. De Jonge doesn't delve into specifics on what the battle entails, but if it is this big, it could dwarf the likes of the fight against Regalla's troops in Forbidden West.

Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC launches next month on April 19. Considering we've seen relatively little of the DLC since it was announced in December 2022, this news will come as music to the ears of anxious Horizon and Aloy fans.

Check out our upcoming PS5 games guide for a look at all the major releases slated for Sony's new-gen console.

While you might think the appeal of Horizon: Call of the Mountain might be in getting to immerse yourself in a fantastical world full of towering robot dinosaurs through PSVR 2, players are really latching onto little things like touching ferns or holding sticks.

Just take a look at the clips early players are posting to social media. You won't see big, spoiler-filled videos of the scripted story encounters and set pieces - instead, everyone is eager to share how they're playing around with small details in the environment. You can toss plates around, pick up torches and hold them to campfires to light them, or dip your finger in paint and use it to write messages on rock walls.

None of these things are new for VR games, of course. In fact, many of these clips are taken from an opening area that serves up a ton of objects to play with, and you see similar sorts of introductory VR physics playgrounds in games like Half-Life Alyx. Call of the Mountain does stand apart with its visual fidelity and attention to detail, however. For example, just look at how you can stick your hand in the water and watch the ripples form.

For me, I just want to play with the instruments. Who needs a new Samba de Amigo when you've got VR Horizon maracas?

In our Horizon: Call of the Mountain review, we call it a "a stunning game that really brings the Horizon world truly to life in a way I didn't really imagine was possible." It's the little things that really help to sell the reality of that world.

Speaking of little things, have you seen Aloy in Call of the Mountain? I had no idea our hero was so… fun-sized.

Horizon: Call of the Mountain players can't get over how tiny Aloy is in the new game.

Call of the Mountain, the new PSVR 2-developed Horizon spin-off, launched alongside the new hardware yesterday on February 22. As the major first-party launch title, Call of the Mountain is drawing in veteran Horizon players, and they're quite perplexed at how small Aloy is.

"Maybe a minor spoiler I guess, but she shows up in the beginning of Call of the Mountain. Snd seeing her in human scale in VR....shes quite small. She seems barely over 5 foot," one flummoxed user on the Horizon-dedicated subreddit writes. "Tiny but mighty," another wrote in response.

"At some point you do meet Aloy and I have to say it was a true experience, I was face to face with the beautiful warrior and I have to say it was awsome," another fan of Horizon Forbidden West wrote. "She was shorter then I imagined."

"One of the things you can only experience with an actual VR headset is the scale of things. Seeing the machines in life size is amazing," a player wrote, explaining one of the neat new things about Call of the Mountain. "One thing that stood out to me is how short Aloy is."

If you hadn't already guessed, Aloy is in fact in Horizon: Call of the Mountain, as developer Guerrilla revealed prior to the new game launching. However, the mainline lead is only in a supporting role this time round, which means players are now seeing Aloy from an entirely new perspective.

As a result, Aloy's scale when next to objects like the player is being revealed in a fully 3D environment. Aloy might be a short queen, but as the aforementioned user attested to, she's "tiny but mighty."

If you're curious about the hardware itself, you can check out our detailed PSVR 2 review for more. Alternatively, if you've already got your hands on the new hardware, you can read our pick of the best PSVR 2 games for a list of titles you should dive into first. 

Elsewhere, head over to our upcoming PSVR 2 games guide for a look ahead at what the future holds for the new-gen headset. 

Fans of Horizon Forbidden West don't seem to know quite how to feel about the game's early appearance on PS Plus Extra.

Yesterday, Sony confirmed that Horizon Forbidden West would lead a stacked lineup for its subscription-based offerings this month. Over on the game's subreddit, that addition - coming less than a year after the game's launch - has been met with a mixed response.

Many fans have noted that the decision is part of a broader marketing campaign - with the Burning Shores DLC releasing in April and Call of the Mountain launching next week, getting Forbidden West in front of as many eyes as possible seems like a no-brainer. If that strategy can be combined with an extra boost for PS Plus, why shouldn't Aloy feature as early as possible?

Others, however, have expressed some disappointment. Look past the upcoming new releases, and it might be easy to take a move to Sony's subscription service as evidence of disappointing sales. Others still have maligned their decision to buy the game, with one user asking "why even buy new games anymore" if they're set to be available for a dramatically reduced price not that long after release. A couple of unfortunate players even noted that they only bought the game in the past few weeks.

The overarching sentiment appears to be that Sony is making a smart move by getting some free promotion in place for Aloy and pals ahead of two significant franchise launches, even if some fans are upset that they might never get to play one of them.

We're gearing up for Call of the Mountain, but here are some more upcoming PSVR 2 games.