NCSOFT unveils Horizon Steel Frontiers, first mobile MMORPG in series

Horizon is heading into mobile MMO territory, and NCSOFT is betting the series’ machine-hunting identity can survive the genre shift. The company unveiled Horizon Steel Frontiers at G-STAR 2025 at BEXCO in Haeundae, Busan, and positioned it as a global title that will run on mobile and PC through NCSOFT’s PURPLE platform.

Guerrilla Games framed the project bluntly: “We’re thrilled to announce Horizon Steel Frontiers, a mobile-first MMORPG based on the Horizon universe, developed by our friends at NCSOFT with support from Guerrilla.” Sony Interactive Entertainment later described it as a new MMORPG set in the Horizon universe with large-scale, cross-platform play. Guerrilla studio director and art director Jan-Bart van Beek said the collaboration is meant to bring players a new Horizon experience, which is exactly the pitch NCSOFT needs if it wants this to land as more than a logo exercise.

The first details lean hard into scale. NCSOFT says the game is set in the Deadlands and will feature mechanical creatures, large-scale battles, high customization and advanced MMORPG combat systems. Players will be able to create their own hunter and step into familiar tribal groups including the Nora, Tenakth, Utaru and Oseram. That mix matters because it tells mobile players what kind of game this is likely to be: not a straight action spin-off, but a broader online structure built around co-op play, tribal conflict and persistent progression.

The key question now is how much of Horizon’s feel survives the MMO layer. Global testing is expected in the second half of 2026, with full release still expected sometime after 2027. That gives NCSOFT a long runway to prove the combat works on phones and PC without flattening the hunt into generic auto-battle filler. It also leaves plenty of room for players to watch for the parts that make or break a mobile MMORPG, especially how social systems and moment-to-moment combat are handled once the first tests go live.

The franchise has enough weight to justify the gamble. Guerrilla said Horizon had sold 32.7 million units worldwide by April 16, 2023, including 8.4 million copies of Horizon Forbidden West. Guerrilla, founded in 2000 and based in Amsterdam, has already had another Horizon multiplayer project in development, later publicly revealed as Horizon Hunters Gathering, while Sony has also been protecting the IP in court with a 2025 lawsuit against Tencent over Light of Motiram. Horizon Steel Frontiers now sits inside that larger push, and the Deadlands reveal makes the risk clear: if the hunt still feels like Horizon once the MMO systems kick in, NCSOFT has something real. If not, the brand alone will not carry it.