Before the Horizon series, Guerrilla Games developed the Killzone series for Sony’s PlayStation. This gritty first-person shooter franchise saw five games come out from 2004 to 2013 for a range of PlayStation consoles as Sony took on Xbox’s Halo, culminating in PlayStation 4 launch title Killzone Shadow Fall.
But fans haven’t heard a peep out of Killzone ever since (save a T-shirt in The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered), with the last decade and, seemingly, beyond devoted to the smash hit Horizon franchise. Based on comments from one of Guerrilla’s developers, perhaps we now know why.
Speaking to the Washington Post to discuss the impending launch of spin-off Lego Horizon Adventures, art director Roy Postma, who has worked at Guerrilla since 2000, declared the studio’s preference for the brighter, more vibrant world of Horizon over the dark and violent world of Killzone it had spent the previous decade working on.
“We were done with it as a team,” Postma said. “As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of Killzone.”
That’s clear enough, but Postma added that as far as Guerrilla (and no doubt Sony) is concerned, Horizon is a world with wider appeal than Killzone’s.
“I think the themes that this story and the characters represent are relatable for all ages and people, like having a found family of friends and finding your place in the world,” Postma added.
Killzone fans have, on and off, called for a return to the series, with PlayStation lacking a successful first-person shooter of its own. During the PS4 generation, Sony leaned heavily on marketing deals with Activision for the Call of Duty series, which secured timed exclusive DLC as well as more benefits. That partnership, of course, is now over following Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Will Sony eventually return to Killzone? If it does, it might need a developer other than Guerrilla to revive it, perhaps with a remake of one of the earlier games before a proper sequel or reboot. Guerrilla is currently working on a live service Horizon Online multiplayer game, with Horizon 3 potentially a ways off. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered launches at the end of October.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.