Boy, this is awkward: Sony drops the first Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest directly on top of the Marathon server slam this weekend

Boy, this is awkward: Sony drops the first Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest directly on top of the Marathon server slam this weekend | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders design director says players ‘never worked together’ in testing, but the emergence of care bear lobbies ‘encourages us to lean toward giving opportunities to have friendly interactions’ Third Person Shooter Embark admits Arc Raiders’ bosses are dying too fast because ‘they’re not intended for the full server to go up against’ and ‘we gave players too effective abilities’ FPS As Destiny 2’s player count continues to tank, Bungie announces that the next major update is delayed until June and getting a new name Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders’ matchmaking isn’t ‘binary’, says design lead: ‘There’s no such thing as a friendly lobby or an aggressive lobby’ Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders full interview: ‘Nobody whatsoever thought we’d have this many players’ Third Person Shooter Helldivers 2’s siege of Cyberstan is the greatest galactic campaign the game has seen so far FPS PC sales of High On Life were just behind PlayStation, the ‘lead platform,’ but Xbox trailed behind despite its 7-month console exclusivity deal Games Time Takers is an era-mashup lightning-fast survival shooter with a beta test you can dive into next month FPS Marathon: Everything we know about Bungie’s sci-fi extraction shooter FPS Highguard website woes are just an administrative thing, developer says, and the studio is in no rush to fix it because ‘reputational damage’ is already done FPS ‘Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances’: Bungie’s doubling down on security following Arc Raiders’ recent struggles FPS Highguard didn’t flop FPS Laid-off Highguard developer cuts loose on the reaction to the infamous Game Awards reveal trailer: ‘We were turned into a joke from minute one’ Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders’ contentious ‘aggression-based matchmaking’ isn’t just smart, but absolutely necessary FPS Highguard review PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Games Action Marathon Boy, this is awkward: Sony drops the first Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest directly on top of the Marathon server slam this weekend News By Andy Chalk published 24 February 2026 Sure, they’re different kinds of playtests for different kinds of games, but even so, this comes off as a little weird to me. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The long-rumored co-op action game Horizon Hunters Gathering was finally made official earlier this month, along with a promise of a “small-scale closed playtest” set for the end of February. Today Sony announced that the test will run from February 27 to March 1, and if those dates feel oddly familiar to you, it might be because you’ve already blocked them out on your calendar for the Marathon server slam.The Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest will give “selected players” a shot at taking Sun, Ram, or Axle—three of the game’s cast of characters—for a spin through through two game modes: a wave-based survival mode called Machine Incursion, and a “multi-stage dungeon featuring ever-changing challenges” called Cauldron Descent.Hunters! 🏹 We know you’ve got questions about the upcoming playtest, so here you can find the most important answers to get you ready 🔽 playstation.com/games/horizo… More questions? Drop them below, and our team will do their best to answers them. See you in the Gathering, Hunters! 💟💟💟— @playhorizonhg.bsky.social (@playhorizonhg.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:36:31.822ZThe timing is certainly interesting. The Hunters Gathering playtest is set to run directly overtop the Marathon server slam, the final pre-release playtest for Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter. They’re very different things serving very different purposes—one a mid-development closed playtest aimed at helping “shape development, as many game systems are still evolving,” the other an open-to-all server stress test immediately ahead of launch—but even so I can’t shake the feeling that one of these games, or maybe even