Horizon: Zero Dawn MMO reportedly cancelled

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On the heels of Sonyā€™s cancellation of a God Of War live-service game, the firm has reportedly also quietly culled a Horizon: Zero Dawn MMO.


Mere weeks after it was announced that Sony Pictures is working on ā€“ among other things ā€“ a movie based on its own hit sci-fi videogame, Horizon: Zero Dawn, along comes a report that an MMO based on the same property has been quietly cancelled.

Word of the cancellation originates from a Korean website, MTN, a translation of which then appeared on Resetera before filtering out to the rest of the internet (thanks, Eurogamer).

If the translation is accurate, then itā€™s believed that several projects, operating under the codenames Pantera, H and J, have been scrapped at developer NCSoft following a ā€˜feasibility reviewā€™.

Itā€™s been reported for a while that Project H refers to Horizon, with a deal between Sony and NCSoft previously announced in 2022 which would see the latter ā€œcreate new games using Sonyā€™s promising game IP.ā€

It now looks as though the Horizon MMO has been scrapped before it was even formerly unveiled.

The report emerges as Sony has ended other high-profile projects of a similar sort. A God Of War live-service spin-off was once in the works at Bluepoint, a studio previously best known for its HD ports of games like Demonā€™s Souls. That game is now dead, along with another, untitled live-service project at Bend Studio, known for the action title, Days Gone.

Sony is, it seems, cutting costs in one sector of its business while investing elsewhere. The aforementioned Horizon: Zero Dawn movie was announced at the Computer Electronics Show earlier in January, alongside a film adaptation of Helldivers. Both have been major hits for Sony on PlayStation consoles; Horizon being an open-world action game about killing gigantic robot creatures in a post-apocalyptic landscape; the latter a co-operative live-service shooter about exterminating bugs.

With the Uncharted movie doing decent business in cinemas in 2022 and The Last Of Us season one receiving acclaim (season two is due this year), Sony has enjoyed success in its videogame adaptations to date. God Of War, Ghost Of Tsushima, Gravity Rush and Days Gone could all be getting movies of their own at some point in the future. Just donā€™t expect to be playing an MMO or live-service title based on those properties anytime soon.

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