If there ever is to be another Killzone title out of Sony in the future, you probably should not expect it to come out of the series' original developer Guerrilla Games. Having shifted focus to its more vibrant Horizon series following PS4 launch game Killzone: Shadow Fall, the studio's art director Roy Postma has commented that the studio was "done with it as a team". It wanted to create the opposite of Killzone's colour palette when crafting Aloy's first instalment, Postma told The Washington Post.
The comments come from an interview about LEGO Horizon Adventures, where it's revealed LEGO approached Sony about the idea of a LEGO game following the release of its Tallneck LEGO set. Talking about switching from the dark and gritty world of Killzone to the colourful post-apocalyptic setting of Horizon, Postma said: "We were done with it [Killzone] as a team. As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of Killzone. I think the themes that this story and the characters represent are relatable for all ages and people, like having a found family of friends and finding your place in the world."
Guerrilla Games created Killzone titles from 2004 until 2013, spanning five entries across four consoles. With Sony making a push into the live-service market, the Killzone franchise is one that fans have pegged for a comeback, along with the likes of SOCOM and Twisted Metal. This hasn't materialised, however, as Sony released — and quickly pulled — Concord, while finding major success in Helldivers 2 earlier this year. Fairgame$ from Haven Studio and Bungie's own Marathon are also on the way.
If there ever is to be another Killzone game, it sounds like Guerilla Games has little enthusiasm to make it. How do you feel about that? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source washingtonpost.com]
Comments 42
No kidding.
They've gone soft. I don't see them doing something as gritty as Killzone 2 anymore. Ever.
I like Horizon, but it's just so clean and squishy for a post apocalyptic world.
Well, just sell the IP to someone else then.
Guess we're stuck with Horizon and a billion spin-offs...
I’ve never played these games, but it’s a shame to see a long-ish standing series end. Especially since it didn’t even get like a 10th anniversary game? But at the same time, I think it’s good when a series actually finds a place to reach its conclusion; Uncharted, Jak & Daxter, etc.. It feels refreshing to me, since most series seem to go on forever even when they’ve run their course like Assassin’s Creed.
I don’t really like horizon. It looks pretty but I think it’s waaaay overhyped and the voice acting is pants.
Sucks as I’m a big killzone fan. But no loss with this current team. As I seriously doubt there is enough cool blokes left from the OG teams especially with the current ethos of the studio. Which is too soft. So they wouldn’t be able to make a proper killzone. As killzones are dark and more masculine. The team that makes warhammer could make a good killzone.
Unfortunately this happends. I was praying for another Unreal or Heretic/Hexen. On the other hand if it should end like Diablo 4 than I'm rather glad they are not thinking about resurrecting these shooters.
We know they only made Shadow Fall because Horizon was in a long conceptual phase and they needed a “quick”/safe project to tide them over. I think it’s safe to say they wanted Killzone 3 to be the last game originally.
Ι don't blame them. Killzone games didn't sell particularly well, despite being well made.
And that is sound of my heart breaking. Kill zone 2 is my favourite multiplayer game of all time. This franchise deserves more respect.
Good. Even the best game in the series (KZ2) was a 7/10 at best. Horizon smokes it in every way and you can see there's actual passion in that series.
I think it's for the best. The team seemed to be out of ideas for that world by the time the last installment came around.
@naruball I had the impression that, apart from Killzone 3 and the Vita game, Killzone as a series overal was both critically and commercial successful. But wouldn't be the first time my memory is a bit spotty.
They already made 5 Killzone games + supervised 1 (Mercenary). So it's normal if they feel they're done with the series.
And story wise, i don't think there's still something they can use to make a new Killzone since Shadow Fall ending pretty much said no more war between Vektan and Helghast. Unless they soft reboot the series and create a new enemy. But are the fans gonna accept if Helghast isn't the enemy?
I may be completely wrong, but I feel like they’ve misjudged horizon’s success.
I like it. I bought both games and the available DLC, But I’m already kind of getting tired of the IP. I have very little interest in the Lego game or in whatever multiplayer game they’re doing.
I’m getting vibes They’re gonna try to milk that IP to death just like Ubisoft has with assassin’s Creed, and I think that’s a mistake.
I've noticed that there is a trend that these Sony sequels do worse than the originals. Spiderman 2, GOW Ragnarok and HFW didn't outdo the originals while surely being more expensive to make.
Gives me hope for a new and better Sony in 5 years time.
Sony should give it to another studio and reboot it
Here I am hoping for the next sly game since thieves in time ended on a cliffhanger:(
@MrPeanutbutterz Just because the developers are passionate doesn't mean that it translated into a better product. HFW had a lukewarm reception overall. I hope that the studio switches things up.
Makes sense from a creative point of view. Most creative people DON'T want to be working on the same thing forever. Though as an IP it would be valuable for Sony to do something with it, even if it was never all that big a deal.
@LuXifer the entire Killzone franchise across 6 games have sold a bit over 11 million copies according to sales data. The first Horizon game has sold 24 million copies by itself. Killzone was never a commercially successful franchise. It did ok enough to keep going but it never was a hit with most gamers.
I'm not even asking for a new game. (Though I'd love to see it) Can I just get a PS3 Killzone collection? That's all I ask!
It's a real shame they shut down Guerilla Cambridge. Mercenary was fantastic and I was hoping that studio would just become the new Killzone studio while Guerilla proper could move on to Horizon.
I just miss Killzone 😢
Motorstorm, Resistance, Kill Zone, The Order 1886, Syphon Filter would be happy to see sequels to all of them. More than wolverine, another spiderman and another horizon.
I still think a live service KZ supported by Bungie would be a great thing. At least give us a remastered collection 😔
@Gewertzx story based sequel games always sell worse than the first game in the series. That is how it always goes with games. More people will buy the first game since it is fresh and new but may realize that it wasn’t really their type of game so don’t pick up the sequel. Even this comment section shows multiple people saying they tried the first game but they didn’t end up liking it.
Then there is also the game subscription effect. The games you listed had their first games come out before Sony had announced the new PS+ that acts like gamepass, so it was way less likely for these games to be included with the old PS+. Now with the new PS+ model people are expecting these games to be added to a service they already pay for so are willing to wait instead of buying them outright. Iirc Forbidden West was actually announced before it released to be coming to PS+ just 6 months after launch which would contribute to why it sold 66% less than Zero Dawn. The fact that it even did sell 8 million copies is really good all things considered.
It'd be nice of there was a remaster (or even a re-release on PS4/PS5) for those of us that missed the core of this series. (I was a Nintenkid and XBot until PS4 generation.)
A shame. Sony want their live service games and they have the perfect canvas with Killzone, Socom and Resistance. Why are execs so short sighted? They have the perfect IP's for it and don't use them. Instead they make a flop called Concord.
@GADG3Tx87 those franchises didn’t sell well enough to maintain live service numbers. Resistance as a franchise only sold a bit over 6 million copies total. You have nostalgia for those games but for a live service to succeed you need something completely new and that appeals to the younger generations as they are the ones with the time to invest in live service games and willingness to spend money in them.
@Gewertzx the problem is - once you've found success, the last thing Sony wants to do is kill that goose that layed the golden egg (arguably, TLOUp2 did that for a lot of people - though not me). For some reason, Sony just lost the hunger for new and exciting... or experimental even. They just want to be as inoffensive to as many people as they possibly can.
The irony - the completely vanilla games that are coming out of Sony now are most probably it's biggest vulnerability (and would be really problematic if XB wasn't such a dumpster fire as well)
This news makes me resent Horizon even more. I can't stand the gameplay. They definitely accomplished their goal of making it the opposite of Killzone.
Killzone is awesome.
Loved every title in the franchise, but 2 and2 were the best. Sony is stupid to let this franchise die like that
I always find it funny how, in hindsight, even the most mediocre games can become in the eyes of nostalgists a beloved series. Let's be real here, Killzone was always a second, maybe third, tier franchise, never among the elite of FPS games. They never sold that well, or reviewed particularly highly. This is why they stopped making them in the first place!
If everyone who now says they would love to see Killzone return had bought them originally, then the series would still be going. But, of course, this all simply rose-tinted nostalgia talking.
So, no, Sony shouldn't try and resurrect a dead horse. Make something new (and good!) instead.
Loved KZ 2 & 3, the class based multiplayer was fantastic!
But the Shadowfall campaign was mediocre at best, had no chance against the likes of CoD
@PloverNutter Ahh, I see. Thanks a bunch for the info. I seemed to have had the impression that they were beloved and well regarded, might've just been Sony fans clamouring to the one big exclusive fps on the system at the time.
Personally I have no horse in the race, just glad they're finding success.
Horizon is dull imo. Killzone is great. They might be done with it but I certainly wasn't. A real pity.
@ecurb7
I bought Killzone 2 on day one and it blew my mind. It is not a call of duty clone, it's something completely different. A sci-fi shooter. I also loved killzone 3. I played Shadow fall, it took a while to get going, but it got there. The visuals mixed with the music, make shadow fall an incredible experience on PS4.
The critic's slater it probably because it takes so long to get started. These guys are paid to write articles and reviews, half them talk a lot of waffle and know very little of what they are writing about.
As far as I'm concerned both horizon games are complete bore fests. Gorilla would be better served to put their effort into a new killzone game.
@ecurb7 Agreed. We all have our personal preferences but, by and large, the choices made by Sony's first party studios have paid off, both critically and commercially. No one can confidently claim that Guerilla should abandon Horizon and return to Killzone, beyond personal taste, because the reality simply paints a different picture.
Well. It's their choice of course.
But I would rather play tight story-driven shooter with incredible atmosphere as opposed to bloated open world with bad story (i'm sorry, but Forbidden West story was just bad).
These comment sections continue to be alternate realities where all kinds of weird what-if scenarios play out in real time. Todays:
“What if Killzone was actually a beloved series, that was really successful and highly rated…”
I love Horizon, so if they focus on that, fine. I also don't blame them for wanting to do different things after working on that series for nearly 10 years. It's funny how people are feeling the need to crap on the Horizon series just because they don't want to do Killzone anymore.
Sony could just have a different developer do a new Killzone. It shouldn't be that hard for Sony or fans to think of, but the likelihood of that happening with today's Sony is very slim since they love to leave IPs that fans want to return remain dormant.
Sad news, actually should be cancelling Horizon and focusing on Killzone or some new IP, I don't like Horizon and it blunt rainbow characters, boring story and most of all extremely repetitive gameplay.
We've only ourselves to blame. Didn't buy enough of them when we had them. I throughly enjoyed them, especially online.
Im getting tired of horizon games already.killzone needs to comeback.word up son
Back when Sony was making Killzone, all of the comments on this site were about how everyone hated Killzone.
It's so funny how we come full circle.
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