There’s strong speculation coming out of Korea that Sony has signed a deal with developer NCSoft to create an MMO adaptation of its best-selling Horizon franchise. The studio is best known for uber-popular releases like Lineage and Guild Warswhich are big in Asia, although a report by local publication MTN claims that the company is gunning for global success here.
Judging by the wording in the report, it sounds like the ink is still a little wet on this deal, so if accurate it’ll still be in the very early stages of development. Interestingly, though, PlayStation has been hiring for a Korean translator – with the job location listed as Amsterdam. Horizon creator Guerrilla Games is of course based in the Dutch capital, so this adds weight to the report.
Even more fascinating is that, alongside that translator role, Sony has a handful of Amsterdam-based producer roles for an upcoming “mobile game project”. Given the expertise of NCSoft, and PlayStation’s decision to develop more mobile games, we wouldn’t be surprised if this title turned out to be targeting smartphones, a little like Genshin Impact perhaps.
In fact, speaking with Famitsu fairly recently, PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst said: “We believe that developing titles that are suitable for mobile and realizing crossplay between console and mobile is also an important initiative.” So, it’s possible this Horizon MMO could launch on a variety of platforms, including mobile, PlayStation, and PC.
We’ll obviously contact Sony and try and get some clarification on exactly what’s afoot here, but this could be a potentially fascinating expansion of the Horizon universe. Is it something you’d be interested in, though? Remember, there are separately rumors of an online-focused live service Horizon spin-off game from Guerrilla; whether it’s connected to this purported NCSoft partnership is unclear.
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