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

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Lego Horizon was the "first small step"

Horizon Zero Dawn
(Image credit: Sony)

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.

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Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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