Guerrilla Games Unveils Grand Plans for Horizon Multiplayer

Summary

• Guerrilla Games may be predicting very high player interest for its upcoming Horizon multiplayer game.
• A recent Guerrilla job listing hints at the studio building live-service systems for the Horizon multiplayer game that can support over one million players.
• On the other hand, Guerrilla might be taking preventative measures to ensure that the Horizon multiplayer game doesn't suffer from server issues at launch like Helldivers 2 did.

Guerrilla Games appears to have high hopes for its eagerly anticipated Horizon multiplayer project. Despite the game not yet being officially unveiled, Guerrilla seems to anticipate a significant influx of players for this upcoming live-service title.

Since the release of Horizon Forbidden West in 2022 and its Burning Shores DLC the following year, Guerrilla has been relatively quiet, focusing on smaller projects like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and LEGO Horizon Adventures. However, rumors and job listings dating back to 2018 have consistently hinted at the development of a Horizon multiplayer game, which seems increasingly likely to be revealed soon.

A recent job listing for a Senior Platform Engineer at Guerrilla suggests the studio is preparing for a massive player base, with the role requiring "proven experience building and operating multi service, 1M+ user globally distributed systems across multiple public cloud providers." This indicates that Guerrilla is not only expecting over one million players for the Horizon multiplayer game but is also constructing a robust live-service infrastructure to support such a large community.

However, this ambition might also reflect a strategic move to prevent the kind of server issues that plagued Helldivers 2 at launch. Helldivers 2's servers were overwhelmed due to its unexpected popularity on PS5 and PC, causing significant inconvenience for players. Guerrilla's preparation could be a precautionary measure to ensure a smooth onboarding experience for the Horizon multiplayer game, even if it doesn't reach the same level of success as Helldivers 2.

Given that the Horizon multiplayer game has been in development for several years, and assuming there are no significant delays, Guerrilla might be gearing up for an announcement and potential release in 2025. A previous job listing hinted at a new Horizon game launch in 2025, which, considering the timeline for the next mainline entry, could well be the multiplayer project.