It was already clear that Guerrilla Games has more in store for the Horizon franchise. The studio reiterated that notion at a recent event by saying Horizon will be going on for some time.
There are many rumored and confirmed Horizon games in development
A handful of Guerrilla Games employees spoke at the Develop:Brighton event, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. After reflecting on development stories related to both Horizon games, studio director and art director Jan-Bart van Beek said Guerrilla will be “continuing Horizon for a long while.”
Some of these plans have already been confirmed, while others have been strongly implied. Guerrilla said it was working on a stylized Horizon multiplayer game, footage of which allegedly leaked in January. There’s also a Netflix series in the works.
A proper Horizon 3 hasn’t been outright confirmed, but Guerrilla has talked around it enough. It noted that Aloy will return and that the developer is “expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy’s next adventure,” the latter of which was a quote in the aforementioned post about the job listings that confirmed the multiplayer spin-off. Horizon Forbidden West’s cliffhanger ending is another clear indicator that a third installment is on the way.
There’s also reportedly a massively multiplayer online game in development with NCSoft and a PS5 remake or remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn, but neither have been confirmed.
With the studio committing to Horizon for the long haul, it seems doubtful that it would return to Killzone anytime soon (or develop a new franchise). Guerrilla spoke about the shooter series during that Develop:Brighton, reflecting on what did and didn’t work and noting how invigorating it was to work on Horizon.
“Killzone was our first IP, testing all our ideas, seeing how things worked,” said van Beek. “There were some great ideas in there, but also some that never really worked. We had this idea that was based upon franchises like Aliens, where it’s all about the bad guys and what we found out was that people still really need a hero to clamp onto and identify with. So when you’re making a whole IP about the baddies, it’s hard to do good storytelling. That was something we definitely took on board.
“Idiosyncrasies that meant it never really gelled with them, so when we were making Horizon we were looking at a much broader audience, and telling a bigger story that’s relevant to a lot more people.”
Technical director Michiel van der Leeuw also expressed an urge to move on after the PS4 launch title Killzone: Shadow Fall.
“After Killzone: Shadow Fall for [the] PlayStation 4, we knew we wanted a bigger, broader IP,” said van der Leeuw. “We also wanted something positive. We’d been making ruins for a little bit too long, and the studio got really excited about making nature. Everyone was really excited about robots. There were many things we could do with the same universe, different games, different styles.”
