There is a small upside to recent news about Sony’s layoffs, as we now have confirmation that two of their upcoming titles are still on the way.
As shared on reddit by user Zhukov, Jason Schreier was answering fans in relation to yesterday’s news of the Sony layoffs. We now know those layoffs will be happening across the PlayStation division’s offices across the world, and will include the studios that make their games.
As Jason confirmed, Guerrilla Games’ Horizon online game, and Firesprite’s Project Heartbreak are still in production. This is certainly heartening news for PlayStation owners, who had to listen to incoming SIE CEO Hiroki Totoki reveal that Sony would not be able to release one of their own developed AAA games this financial year. That runs past December 2024 and will take until the end of March, 2025.
We don’t know much about Guerrilla Games’ Horizon online game, and the way they have described the title implies that it might not be a live service game in structure. It may also simply be messaging designed to keep the title’s secrets away from the public.
Whatever the case may be, the only other Horizon spin-off we have seen so far is VR game Horizon: Call of the Mountain. While many reviewers swear by the game’s playability and production values, overall reception on the title is mixed. Neither Sony nor Guerrilla Games have talked about the title’s sales numbers, but given that Sony is set to make their PSVR 2 headsets usable on PCs, it’s clear that the game did not sell enough to meaningfully affect Sony’s VR business.
What we know about Project Heartbreak all comes from former IGN personality turned podcaster Colin Moriarty. As reported by PSU, he shared details about the title on his Sacred Symbols podcast, though he seems to have gotten some details wrong.
The game is being penned by Pierre Shorrette, whose name was misspelled as Sheret. Pierre’s LinkedIn confirms his work in TellTale Games as writing director for four years, and then Ubisoft as Narrative Director for one year. His famous works include The Walking Dead Seasons One and Two, The Wolf Among Us, And Tales From The Borderlands. Pierre’s LinkedIn also shows he is CCO of Adhoc Studio.
Mondo Ghulam, whose name was misspelled as Gulam, is a veteran animation director at Rockstar Games. His Mobygames page confirms his work at not only Grand Theft Auto, but also L.A. Noire, Midnight Club, Manhunt, and in his sole non-Rockstar title so far, The Signal From Tolva. His LinkedIn also confirms he is currently an employee of Firesprite.
Colin’s only other details for Project Heartbreak is that it is set on an island and will have a female protagonist. The truth is, Firesprite has worked mostly on smaller games and as a support studio for other companies’ projects, for instance as co-developer for Horizon Call of The Mountain. So we don’t have a clear frame of reference if they can make this game good.
Still, these games continuing development at least indicates their progress has been more promising compared to other titles. While we can’t expect either to release soon, perhaps Sony will reveal either or both titles this year to give PlayStation owners something to look forward to.
