Horizon is one of Sony"s flagship franchises in gaming. Following critical acclaim and financial success of Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017, the PlayStation platform has seen the release of a similarly successful sequel Horizon Forbidden West in 2022 too. We also know that a spin-off is currently in development for the PlayStation VR2. Now, it appears that Sony wants to capitalize on its popular franchise even further by publishing an massively multiplayer online (MMO) title soon.
According to a report from a South Korean news outlet MTN, Sony is collaborating with NCSoft to build an MMO based on Sony"s Horizon IP. For those unaware, NCSoft is a South Korean game development company behind multiple popular MMORPG titles such as Lineage and Guild Wars.
The MMO is reportedly codenamed "Project H", which is also the term that NCSoft is using in job listings for hiring purposes while maintaining secrecy around the project.
The report also claims that the game is currently in early development and that both parties are currently discussing how they can contribute to the project. When asked about Project H by Kotaku, NCSoft somewhat confirmed the title, or at the very least, did not deny its existence:
It is difficult to confirm information about unpublished projects that are currently under development.
News outlet VGC shed some further details on why Sony is going in this direction. Apparently, the company has always wanted to expand Horizon into the co-op space and in fact, both the current titles in the franchise were meant to include multiplayer, but any such features were axed.
Of course, Sony hasn"t confirmed this report yet, and it"s unlikely that it will until details are more firm. This also means that there is no guarantee that the project will see the light of day so it"s better to temper your expectations just in case.