Horizon 3 Still Years Away as Guerrilla Games Plans Aloy’s Next Adventure

Guerrilla Games has assigned only a very small team to plan Horizon 3, pushing the anticipated single-player sequel years away from release according to a Bloomberg report. Rather than moving straight to Aloy’s next mainline chapter, the studio has pivoted resources toward multiplayer projects like Horizon Hunters Gathering.

The Shift Toward Multiplayer and Rebuilding Horizon Hunters Gathering

The path to a third mainline installment in the Guerrilla Games franchise faces substantial scheduling friction. According to Bloomberg reporting by Jason Schreier, a tiny faction of developers is currently mapping out the foundational design of the next single-player Horizon title. Yet, the project remains years away from completion. Instead of prioritizing Aloy’s immediate return after the 2022 release of Horizon Forbidden West, the studio diverted significant muscle into Horizon Hunters Gathering.

This cooperative multiplayer offshoot is currently undergoing a structural re-development phase. Consequently, development cycles across the studio have stretched thin. Industry tracking suggests that this delay effectively positions Horizon 3 as a target for PlayStation 6. If current development timelines hold true, the franchise’s next major single-player entry will bypass the active PlayStation 5 lifecycle as a dedicated, native-generation exclusive. By comparison, Horizon Forbidden West launched as a cross-gen title spanning both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 architectures, following the 2017 debut of Horizon Zero Dawn.

Evaluating the Multi-Platform Horizon Ecosystem

Sony’s strategy for the intellectual property extends far beyond a single internal studio roadmap. Guerrilla first formally acknowledged that an ongoing adventure for Aloy was in active conceptualization back in April 2023. Meanwhile, transmedia plans continue to move in parallel. Sony targeted a 2026 start date for the production of a live-action Horizon Zero Dawn screen adaptation, keeping sights on a 2027 release window.

Internal shuffling at Guerrilla has also created fluid project allocations. Employees previously assigned to Horizon Hunters Gathering have transitioned to a separate, unannounced secret project. This mystery venture is scheduled to be evaluated by the end of this year. The franchise footprint grows even wider through external partnerships:

• Horizon Hunters Gathering: An internal Guerrilla multiplayer project currently undergoing re-development.
• Horizon Steel Frontiers: A massive multiplayer online role-playing game developed primarily by NCSoft in close collaboration with Guerrilla, targeting mobile devices with cross-play support for PC.
• Live-Action Adaptation: A cinematic project steered by Sony, slated for production milestones across 2026 and 2027.

Hardware Horizons and the Next Console Generation

Shifting a premier first-party franchise like Horizon into a late-generation or cross-generation transition window alters hardware expectations. When Guerrilla shipped Horizon Forbidden West, the engineering target had to accommodate both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 architectures.

A smaller planning footprint for Horizon 3 allows engineering leads to spec features without backward-compatibility bottlenecks. As the industry watches Guerrilla balance internal restructuring with external Korean MMO partnerships via NCSoft, the timeline confirms that players will wait years before the next canonical chapter of Aloy’s journey materializes on local hardware.