Guerrilla Games Unveils Ambitious Plans for Horizon Multiplayer

Summary

• Guerrilla Games may be anticipating significant player interest in its upcoming Horizon multiplayer game.
• A recent job listing from Guerrilla hints at the studio developing live-service systems capable of supporting over one million players for the Horizon multiplayer game.
• Guerrilla might also be taking proactive steps to prevent server issues at the launch of the Horizon multiplayer game, similar to those experienced by Helldivers 2.

Guerrilla Games appears to be highly confident in the appeal of its forthcoming Horizon multiplayer project. Despite no official reveal yet, the studio seems to expect a massive player base for this live-service title.

Since the release of Horizon Forbidden West in 2022 and its Burning Shores DLC in the subsequent year, Guerrilla has been relatively quiet, focusing on smaller projects such as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and LEGO Horizon Adventures. However, there has been substantial evidence pointing to the development of a Horizon multiplayer game, with job listings as early as 2018 hinting at this project. By 2025, its existence is all but confirmed.

While the exact announcement date for the Horizon multiplayer project remains uncertain, a recent job listing for a Senior Platform Engineer suggests that Guerrilla has ambitious plans for player numbers. The listing's requirements mention "proven experience building and operating multi-service, 1M+ user globally distributed systems across multiple public cloud providers." This indicates that Guerrilla is building a robust live-service infrastructure capable of supporting over one million players.

Guerrilla Might Be Ensuring a Trouble-Free Launch for the Horizon Multiplayer Game

On the other hand, this high player capacity might not just reflect Guerrilla's expectations but also serve as a precautionary measure to ensure a smooth onboarding process for players. The launch of Helldivers 2, for example, saw its servers overwhelmed due to unexpected popularity on PS5 and PC, causing significant issues for both new and existing players. Guerrilla may be keen to avoid such problems with the Horizon multiplayer game. While there's no certainty that the Horizon multiplayer game will achieve the same level of success as Helldivers 2, Guerrilla's preparation is commendable.

The Horizon multiplayer game has been in development for several years. If there are no major setbacks, Guerrilla might be preparing to unveil this live-service title soon. A few months ago, another Guerrilla job listing suggested that a new Horizon game could be released in 2025. Given that the third mainline Horizon entry is still some time away, the anticipated 2025 release is likely to be the Horizon multiplayer project.