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A few years ago, PlayStation announced a pivot to live-service games following the huge popularity of games like Fortnite.
Fortnite is one of the most profitable games in the world thanks to the live-service model filled with microtransactions.
The Horizon series is one of PlayStation’s biggest IPs[/caption]
A number of Horizon live-service games were reportedly in development[/caption]
The Horizon MMO has apparently now been cancelled[/caption]
Numerous companies have tried to follow this trend but many of these games end up cancelled or flopping.
A good example is from February 2024 when four big-budget live-service games launched, Skull & Bones, Suicide Squad, Foamstars, and Helldivers 2, and only the last of these was successful.
PlayStation recently announced the cancellation of two live-service games, including an online God of War game.
Korean outlet MTN, claims that another live-service game based on a hugely popular PlayStation property has been cancelled.
South Korean developer NCSoft is best known for MMOs like Throne and Liberty, but has apparently cancelled a number of projects.
The games codenamed Pantera, H, and J, have all been shuttered, and H is believed to be an MMO based on the Horizon series.
Sony signed a partnership with NCSoft in late 2023 for a Horizon MMO, similar to the contract signed with ShiftUp for Stellar Blade.
Online résumés of NCSoft former employees and old job listings suggest that work on the Horizon MMO began in 2021, with more than a hundred people working on the project in 2023.
It is also said that the game was being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and was being made for mobile and PC.
Former Sony president Jim Ryan claimed that the partnership with NCSoft “advances our strategy to expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation’s reach to a wider audience.”
All of these factors suggest that NCSoft was indeed working on and has now shuttered the Horizon MMO.
NCSoft is apparently not doing well financially, and leadership informed staff that 2025 is a make-or-break year for the company.
The Horizon MMO is a completely separate project from the Horizon live-service game that is currently in development at Guerilla Games.
If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out the future of the $100 game.
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