Even though developer Guerrilla Games hasn’t officially announced a sequel to their 2017 open-world game, Horizon Zero Dawn 2 is all but confirmed, and unlike the first game, it might feature a multiplayer mode.
According to a recent job listing by Horizon’s developer, Guerrilla is looking for a game server engineer who will work on “systems like matchmaking, tournaments, clans, and leaderboards.” In the past, there have been job listings that have been related to an online mode for one of their upcoming games. Moreover, the devs have posted that they’re looking for a senior game programmer, and the details in the listing strongly hint that the position is related to a Horizon sequel, and not a return to the Killzone franchise.
Below is a blurb from the posting on Guerrilla’s website, which indicates that the new position is for Horizon Zero Dawn 2.
“You will technically design, implement and optimize a wide range of in-game features such as ranged and melee weapons, combat and traversal mechanics, player skills, damage and hit responses, camera, inventory and economy systems.”
As previously mentioned, Horizon Zero Dawn didn’t have a multiplayer mode, as Guerrilla opted to have it remain a single-player open-world experience. Of course, the Killzone games did feature multiplayer, so taking a game online isn’t something new for the HZD devs.
There’s a chance that the job listing is related to Killzone, as one of Sony’s many social media accounts posted a poll several months ago asking followers what they’ll be playing when the PlayStation 5 launches later this year, and among the choices was Killzone Online, so the two recent job listings might not be for the same game.
Also in the aforementioned poll was Horizon Zero Dawn 2, but it didn’t mention a multiplayer mode for the unannounced open-world game.
In recent weeks there’s been a rumor floating around that Sony is going to reveal the PlayStation 5 next month, and they’ll likely reveal some of its exclusives too. If that ends up being the case, then Horizon Zero Dawn 2 could be their big launch title for the PS5, so don’t be surprised if you see it get revealed alongside Sony’s next-generation console.
Given that it hasn’t been officially announced, it’s unclear what will be featured in Horizon Zero Dawn’s multiplayer mode. Shortly after it was released, Aloy was added to Monster Hunter World, so HZD 2’s multiplayer could be something similar to Monster Hunter, as it might allow players to team up to hunt down some of the game’s tougher machines.
