NCSoft and Sony have announced Horizon Steel Frontiers, a new MMORPG set in Guerrilla’s Horizon universe designed specifically for mobile.
South Korean video game company NCSoft, best known for MMOs such as Guild Wars and Lineage, has finally confirmed its long-rumored partnership with Sony and Guerrilla to build a Horizon MMO, and revealed the game via a 10-minute development diary and gameplay video, below.
Horizon Steel Frontiers is a massively multiplayer take on Horizon, complete with character customization, social features, and raid-style boss fights. It looks like it has taken inspiration from Capcom’s Monster Hunter in terms of the PvE gameplay, although with Horizon’s trademark robot dinosaur enemies.
You play a machine hunter in the Deadlands and work with and against other players to defeat enemies and compete for resources. It’s not clear yet where Horizon Steel Frontiers takes place in the overarching Horizon timeline, if at all, nor is there clarity on whether we’ll see any familiar faces in the game, such as series protagonist Aloy.
There’s no release date either, but we do know Horizon Steel Frontiers is primarily built for mobile devices (Guerrilla Games studio head Jan-Bart van Beek says as much in the video). It will also be playable on PC via Purple, NCSoft’s proprietary game platform. There’s no mention of a PlayStation release or a wider console launch. Check out IGN’s Horizon Steel Frontiers trailer breakdown to find out what we could gather from the video.
The announcement of Horizon Steel Frontiers comes as Guerrilla is reportedly working on a multiplayer live service Horizon game of its own, although this is expected to launch on PlayStation 5 and, perhaps, PC. Guerrilla confirmed the existence of this long-rumored multiplayer game in December 2022, revealing through a job listing that it would feature a brand new cast of characters and a new art style.
Meanwhile, a full-blown sequel to 2022’s Horizon: Forbidden West is also said to be in development at the studio, as "Aloy's next adventure" was mentioned in April 2023. This will eventually join the first two games alongside PlayStation VR2 spin-off Horizon: Call of the Mountain as mainline entries in the franchise.
Horizon is one of the biggest PlayStation franchises around, with 32.7 million units sold across all titles as of April 16, 2023. Sony announced the live-action Horizon movie back in January during Sony's CES 2025 press conference. Last month, it was reported that Sony hoped to start filming in 2026 with a release at some point in 2027.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
