Layoffs Reported at Horizon MMO Developer NCSoft

Aloy's mobile adventure likely impacted

by · Push Square

South Korean developer NCSoft has cut an unspecified number of jobs, with unannounced projects and support functions being cancelled or otherwise reduced due to its "deteriorating" financial situation. The company, which just released the MMO Throne and Liberty on PS5, struck a deal with Sony a couple of years ago to create another set in Guerrilla's Horizon universe, seemingly just for mobile.

The news comes by way of Korean-language outlet Yanhap, translated by Game Developer (thanks VGC). Co-CEOs Taek-Jin Kim and Byung-Moo Park said the company was "at risk of falling into a chronic deficit, seriously damaging the creativity and challenging spirit that NC originally had".

It remains to be seen which teams will be impacted, but this will likely mean another setback for Sony's mobile initiative. In November last year, then-SIE boss Jim Ryan said of the partnership with NCSoft: "Partnering with NCSoft advances our strategy to expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation’s reach to a wider audience."

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News Job Listing Indicates Horizon MMO Still in Development, Just Not for PS5

Never say never

Are you holding out hope for the Horizon MMO, mobile-bound or not? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source yna.co.kr]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 21

Wait, what? Are you saying that the Horizon MMO was going to be a mobile game??? I just assumed that it was in development for PS5...

@gipsojo What a generation!

Is it me or are there game company layoffs every week now? The industry is in a dire state, isn’t it?

@LavenderShroud It's more that several bubbles are bursting, competition in gaming markets is fiercer than ever before, and far too many executives don't know what the f*** they're doing.

I would rather say the gaming industry is currently unsustainable, but it's not in a dire state. If developers were spending less and focusing on making new trends rather than chasing old ones with little room for iteration, most of this wouldn't be happening.

Man, and I thought I didn’t want a Horizon live-service game!

All of this takes away from the eventual Horizon 3. I’m hoping for the best but expecting the worst at this point.

Sad for individuals, but I'd sooner it get permanently cancelled.
Never have been interested in never ending, yawn fest, live service rubbish that makes me feel like a mark in some sort of grift.

@T-Prime85 why would a game not made by guerrilla take something away from Horizon 3? LOL.

@gipsojo the MMO isn't even confirmed dude ... NCSOFT started recruiting using a font similar to the Horizon font and that was enough for people to believe that game was going to be Horizon mmorpg.

And yes the job listing said pc/mobile but this days ports of "mobile" games to console aren't news. Hoyo is king in that field.

Sony is just hitting it out of the park when it comes to decision making recently... sigh... having said that, the whole industry is taking the L now. Hopefully this is just an adjustment, not something more systemic.

Not good from a layoff POV.
But I'm glad an MMO/mobile game is not being made.
They should concentrate their efforts on Horizon 3, instead of more diluting and milking that will certainly lead to IP exhaustion.

We already have 2 AAA games, 2 hefty DLC's, a Remaster, 2 PC versions, a VR game, a Lego game, a TV show at least in the talks, a multiplayer game in development apparently, and an eventual Horizon 3 sequel.

Sony should give it a much needed rest for 1 year or 2, before they lose more than they gain.

It’s all good there’s no gaming crash, it’s all good there’s no monopolies 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
😒😒😒😒😒

"Oh no! Anyway...."
https://media1.tenor.com/m/nwoJ4BS0XHYAAAAC/oh-no-anyway.gif

I used to be a big MMO fan in the 2000s. Now I just kind of avoid them, as they all feel very samey (Throne and Liberty being a game you´ve probably played a thousand times already, if you regularly try new MMOs)

What would a Horizon MMO even be about? I don´t think any amount of current technology would allow you to translate Horizon gameplay into a massively multiplayer setting in a satisfying way. Are they just taking the setting and doing something more traditional?

Ok so an MMO in the Horizon universe was actually a fairly appealing concept to me....... finding it was or is actually going to be some crappy Korean Mobile game makes me REALLY not want it can we just........not please?

One no one knows if the project is still on or not I see half of u think it cancelled but the article did not say what was cancelled they say horizon might has been effected

What a pathetic generation this is turning out to be

These execs need to learn that there isn't much expansion beyond the console, if people want to play their games they will buy the console.

They are delusional if they think there are billions of people out there who want to play their games who haven't bought a console. Phil Spencer said with Game Pass and Cloud gaming they can reach billions of gamers. Meanwhile Game Pass stagnating at around 30M subs. Stadia shut down too.

The 3 games that were cancelled were Battlecrush, Miniverse and Doguri adventure. There was no mention of the Horizon mmo mobile game whatsoever or any indication that its development was actually impacted but I guess that sub heading spices up this article.

Thank God... no one wanted this. We don't need a Horizon themed Concord...

@gipsojo $700 for a PS5 Pro with no new Sony games, or $600 for an old iPhone that gets new Sony games and also runs your life. Hard choice.

@TrickyDicky99 I think the big problem remains that with the boom in mobile the "executives" in the industry all thought gaming was about to hit it big and become as mainstream as TV. The investors looked at the "gaming" numbers, which includes mobile, and saw nothing but infinite growth, and then demanded to see that growth. Then started pumping investment like crazy to realize that growth. Meanwhile the actual market for games is a small and stagnant niche and always has been. "Video games aren't popular" may be an exaggeration, but it's farily true. 300-350M consoles sold worldwide per generation on a world with how many BILLION people? That's barely the total population of the US alone. "Video games aren't popular" is the unfortunate reality despite the appearance of Fortnite.

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