One of the most iconic PlayStation shooter series could be making a comeback after a years-long absence and developer Guerrilla Games turning its focus to the colorful Horizons series. As industry portals MP1st and professional media such as IGN have consistently reported, Sony’s new version of “Killzone” is in the very early stages of development. It’s unclear if this is a pure remaster or a completely new remaster of the 2004 PS2 classic. Of particular note is the cast of people behind the scenes: the project is not purely in-house at Guerrilla, but was developed in close collaboration with Polish action specialists People Can Fly.
Rumors of a resurgence of military conflict between the ISA and the dystopian Helghast coincide with strategic developments at the studios involved. People Can Fly, known for fast-paced shooters like Bulletstorm and Outriders, signed a deal with Sony last year to develop a prototype codenamed “Project Delta,” explicitly based on the existing PlayStation brand.
According to insiders, the revision of the original first work will be one of the first projects after the group completes its reorganization around the live broadcast service project “Horizon Hunters Gathering” to shorten the waiting time for “Horizon 3”, which is still very long.
From the perspective of many industry observers, a remake or remake of the first Killzone would close a glaring gap in Sony’s first-party portfolio. While Microsoft has dominated the first-person shooter space by including Call of Duty in Game Pass, the PlayStation 5 currently has almost no exclusive brand of its own in this space.
The 2004 original launched at the time as Sony’s direct response to Halo, but suffered from technical compromises on the PS2, such as fluctuating frame rates and an outdated checkpoint system. A modern reinterpretation could iron out these legacy issues and test whether the existing fanbase can still embrace the quintessential, strong gun-fighting genre following the release of Killzone: Shadow Fall on PS4.
Although an official announcement from Sony and Guerrilla Games has yet to be released, the new release could also indicate that the media conglomerate wants to make more specific use of its library of classic archives to refresh what has been a rather thin lineup of current-gen consoles of late.
