Guerrilla Games Will Host the First Horizon Hunters Gathering Closed Playtest This Weekend
Guerrilla Games is kicking off the first closed playtest for Horizon Hunters Gathering, its newly announced cooperative multiplayer entry set in the Horizon universe, and the timing is going to make PlayStation fans do a double take. The studio confirmed a small scale invite only playtest running from February 27, 2026 to March 1, 2026, giving selected players early hands on time with a focused slice of the game’s core loop and its mission driven structure.
Hunters! 🏹 We know you've got questions about the upcoming playtest, so here you can find the most important answers to get you ready 🔽https://t.co/yh8MW6M9J9
— Horizon Hunters Gathering (@playhorizonhg) February 24, 2026
More questions? Drop them below, and our team will do their best to answers them.
See you in the Gathering, Hunters!… pic.twitter.com/mKScAmnoAq
What makes this weekend particularly interesting is the overlap with Bungie’s Marathon Server Slam, an open preview weekend scheduled from February 26, 2026 at 10 AM PT to March 2, 2026 at 10 AM PT. In portfolio terms, that is 2 PlayStation Studios style bets competing for the same attention window, even if one is invite only and the other is open access stress testing.
If you want a shot at Horizon Hunters Gathering, registrations are routed through the official PlayStation Beta Program for PlayStation 5 players via the PlayStation Beta Program. On PC, you can also flag your interest through the Horizon Hunters Gathering Steam page. As with most closed playtests, signing up is not a guaranteed ticket, and invites are distributed selectively with access details delivered by email.
On the content side, Guerrilla is keeping the scope tight but meaningful. The playtest includes 3 playable heroes, Axle, Rem, and Sun, and players will drop into 2 mission types, Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent, all set on a single map, Colorado Springs. The intent is clear: validate moment to moment combat feel, team synergy, and mission pacing before scaling up content breadth.
This closed playtest window, February 27, 2026 to March 1, 2026, lands directly inside Marathon’s Server Slam timeframe, which runs February 26, 2026 through March 2, 2026. If you only have bandwidth for 1, your choice boils down to curated invite only cooperative hunting in a Horizon wrapper versus a wide open pressure test for Bungie’s extraction shooter systems and servers.
If you could only commit to 1 test this weekend, would you prioritize Horizon Hunters Gathering for the cooperative squad fantasy, or Marathon for the competitive extraction grind, and why?
