games · August 20, 2026

Sony pulls live-service from Horizon Hunters Gathering as new studios and Steam debuts reshape the week

What the sources reported

Sony strips live-service from Horizon Hunters Gathering after player feedback

Guerrilla Games is reworking Horizon Hunters Gathering by removing its live-service elements in response to negative player feedback, with several project staff being reassigned within Sony's game development organisation while a small Guerrilla team continues on the next singleplayer Horizon entry. Sources describe the title being rebooted into a smaller, more traditional co-op experience with a story mode, and frame the next full Horizon sequel as still years away from release.

A second studio wave: co-op builders and accessibility specialists

Two new independent studios made their public debuts on August 19, 2026. Raze and Rebuild Studio launched as a cooperative structured around Triple-A veterans and accessibility specialists, with the co-op model presented as central to how the team intends to operate. Separately, Human: Fall Flat veterans announced Pretty Cool Games in the UK, with the studio already hiring after securing financing for its debut project.

Steam activity: a Ukrainian co-op horror hits Early Access and an N.E.O.N. demo lands

Steam saw two notable additions on August 19, 2026. The Ukrainian co-op horror title Last Pirates: Die Together launched into Steam Early Access, adding another regional co-op entry to the platform. On the demo side, a playable demo of N.E.O.N. HORIZON was released on Steam, giving prospective players a first look at the project ahead of any full launch window.

What to watch

The clearest follow-up is whether Guerrilla Games publicly confirms the Horizon Hunters Gathering rework or ships any rebranded announcement for the rebooted co-op project, since all coverage on August 19, 2026 rests on anonymous sourcing rather than an official Sony statement. Both new studios, Raze and Rebuild and Pretty Cool Games, are in early phases — Raze and Rebuild around its co-op formation and Pretty Cool actively hiring — so their first concrete project reveals will be the next signal worth tracking. On Steam, the N.E.O.N. HORIZON demo's reception and Last Pirates: Die Together's Early Access patch cadence are the immediate indicators of momentum.

Evidence

What this means for tooling

Steam release-date tracker with wishlist-count deltas
co-op session browser and latency checker
Early Access patch-note aggregator with regression flags

Tools that already cover this

Decision room queued — the team review of this signal has not started yet.

AI analysis by Lizely. Grounded in linked public evidence. Participants are fictional editorial roles, not real people or human authors.