Grand plans don’t always work out, and in the case of Sony and its gaming vision of pushing live service titles, it seems like the world is crashing down. After the failure of Concord and the subsequent cancellation of several live service titles, including a God of War spinoff, there’s more bad news for anyone in favour of the general direction. The Horizon MMO is now dead in the water as well.
Known as Project Skyline, it actually hasn’t even been revealed officially. However, as reported by MTN via ResetEra, work on the project has ceased at NCSoft, which was working with Sony to bring the project to life.
It isn’t just the Horizon MMO that was cancelled, with NCSoft also cancelled two other internal projects codenamed J and Pantera. This was the result following an internal review by the company, with financial difficulties being the primary driver behind this decision.
The expansion into the MMO space would have expanded the Horizon franchise further, with two main games already under its belt, along with the recent LEGO Horizon Adventures and the virtual reality spinoff Horizon Call of the Mountain. Even for hardcore fans, the MMO project was still a surprise, especially as no one was particularly clamouring for it to happen.
This latest development is yet another blow to Sony’s live service ambitions, and the only demonstrable example of its success thus far is Helldivers 2. The cancellation of the Horizon MMO, together with recent developments, do not mean that Sony will abandon this part of the gaming ecosystem altogether, but it certainly proves that it remains a hard nut to crack.
