A new Bloomberg report claims that Sony has decided to scale back the new Horizon live service title, Horizon Hunters Gathering, by removing the live service elements.

Following poor feedback from players during private tests, it's reported developer Guerrilla Games has been rebooting the project since June. It plans to take out the live service features and turn the game into a far more traditional co-op multiplayer experience with a story mode. The scope of the game has shrunk considerably as a result, it's claimed.

The project has not been cancelled by Sony, but in a meeting, staff were told they have until December "to impress executives with their next milestone", Jason Schreier reported. As a result of the reduced scope, "many" Guerrilla developers have been reassigned to a different project. This project is also being evaluated at the end of the year.

Schreier reports a "tiny team" has been working on Horizon 3, the next single player entry, but it's still "years away" from being ready to launch.

This is just the latest issue in what has become a generation of problems in the live service space for Sony. Having wanted to create a significant presence in the space with more than 10 projects, most of them have been either cancelled or majorly flopped in the years since the announcement. Sony spent $3.6 billion to acquire Destiny 2 developer Bungie, and it hasn't worked out.

Hardcore fans constantly call for a return to a single player focus from PlayStation, and it continues to provide those experiences in the likes of Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey. However, it's impossible to ignore how much of an impact Sony's live service failures have had on the PS5 generation.

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[source bloomberg.com]