Sony confirms new partnership with MMO publisher NCSoft

Last year, multiple sources began reporting that Sony was working on a partnership with MMO publisher NCSoft, potentially for a new online game set in the Horizon universe, something that was discovered in the game files for Horizon Forbidden West. Now, Sony's partnership with NCSoft has been made official. 

This week, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan, and NCSoft CEO, Taekjin Kim, finalised the deal, which will see SIE and NCSoft working together in a global partnership for future games. Speaking on the announcement, Jim Ryan stated that this partnership will “advance” Sony's strategy to “expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation's reach to a wider audience.

Oddly enough, this comes several years after the shutdown of Sony Online Entertainment, which was a publisher within Sony dedicated to PC MMOs and other online games.

On NCSoft's end, Taekjin Kim said that the two companies will “build various synergies together, utilising both companies' core competencies, technological capabilities and expertise”.

No game projects have been announced as part of this partnership yet. However, it is worth noting that Sony has been exploring the idea of an online Horizon spin-off for years already and has built prototypes. It is possible that Sony is looking into building a larger-scale MMO, something that NCSoft could help out with.

NCSoft is best known for its MMO franchises including Lineage, Guild Wars and City of Heroes/City of Villains, both of which have unfortunately been shut down for years. In more recent years, they have continued work on Guild Wars 2 and released new MMOs like Blade & Soul.

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KitGuru Says: We'll have to wait and see where this partnership leads. Do you think we'll end up seeing the long-rumoured Horizon-based MMO after this? 

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