Horizon Steel Frontiers

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Developer	NCSoft
Publisher	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Engine	Unreal Engine 5
Platform	PC (via PURPLE), Mobile
Mode	Multiplayer
Genre	MMORPG

Horizon Steel Frontiers is an upcoming MMORPG in the Horizon franchise, developed at NCSoft in partnership with Sony. No release date has currently been confirmed.

Horizon Steel Frontiers is not be confused with the Horizon Online Project, a separate co-op Horizon game that Guerrilla is developing in-house. Guerrilla indirectly reconfirmed this with their announcement of Horizon Steel Frontiers.

Development History

Horizon Steel Frontiers was rumored for some time before its official announcement, under the development name of "Project Skyline". Project Skyline was initially reported on by Seo Jeong-geun on the Korean outlet MTN in 2022. In this article, a Horizon project at NCSoft was reportely called "Project H." However, in 2023, an NCSoft employee shared a job opening on LinkedIn and their post included art with the words "Project Skyline" clearly stylized in the Horizon logo font. The original post has been taken down, but a Twitter post by Kurakasis contains screenshots of it. After the Project Skyline art leaked, it was broadly assumed that Project H and Project Skyline were the same game, but in January 2025 evidence emerged indicating this was an incorrect assumption.

Horizon Steel Frontiers was officially announced on November 12th, 2025, where it's revealed to currently be in the pre-alpha stage of development.

Characters

Eliza (protagonist)

Thira

Machines

Bellowback Bristleback Broadhead Fireclaw

Glinthawk Grazer Plowhorn Ravager

Redeye Watcher Rockbreaker Scrounger Shell-Walker

Slaughterspine Stalker Stormbird Sunwing

Tallneck Thunderjaw

Locations

• The Deadlands
  • Fading Hope
    • Unnamed Utaru settlement
  • Gusty Ridge

Quests

• Shadow in the Flames

Trivia

• The idea of multiplayer in the Horizon series goes back to the first game, but in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, it was scrapped so the development team could focus on other areas of the title. Reportedly, the multiplayer idea was saved by Guerilla for a future project, namely Horizon Steel Frontiers, or "Horizon 3."
• In December 2022, Guerrilla Games confirmed the existence of a Horizon online project (alongside a single player and external project) in a tweet calling for lead designers for combat, systems, and quests, plus a narrative designer and principal writer. The project will feature "a new cast of characters and a unique stylized look," further stating that "friends will be able to explore the majestic wilds of Horizon together." However, this appears to be a separate project from Horizon Steel Frontiers, as while Steel Frontiers was under development by NCSoft (potentially the "external project" listed in the tweet), Guerilla is said to be the developers of the singleplayer and online project.
• The Monster Hunter series was one of the key inspirations for Horizon Steel Frontiers.
• It's unclear when exactly Horizon Steel Frontiers takes place in the Horizon timeline, although it has been confirmed to take place "while Aloy and her allies are fighting for the fate of the world in the north." Notably, as there are Apex machines present in the game, this narrows it down to taking place during or after the events of Horizon Forbidden West.
• During an interview with IGN on November 13th 2025, Sunggu Lee revealed some additional details about Horizon Steel Frontiers:
  • When asked if Aloy will appear in Horizon Steel Frontiers, Sunggu Lee mentioned how they haven’t finalized whether characters from the original games will appear, and that it's too early to share any specific plans.
  • When asked if Horizon Steel Frontiers will feature player vs player, Sunggu Lee mentioned that at the time, they’re focused on the core content, which is player vs environment elements.
  • When asked if new machines will appear in Horizon Steel Frontiers, Sunggu Lee described the ongoing collaboration to create machines and variants of machines that fit both worlds, never directly answering the question.