Is there something in the digital air this weekend? Bungie are finally letting anybody who wants a go have a go at Marathon from February 26th to March 2nd as part of the game’s server slam, and now it looks like Guerrilla Games’ recently announced live service spin-off Horizon Hunters Gathering is joining it with a playtest of its own.
This playtest was already confirmed when the game was announced earlier this month, though now a hard set of dates have been set: February 27th to March 1st. However! There are several caveats to be aware of. The first is that you need to sign-up through PlayStation’s beta program (which you can do so here), and even then you aren’t guaranteed a chance to try the game out.
A note on the game’s playtest sign-up page does note that there will be more opportunities to try the game out in 2026, so don’t go crying if you don’t get picked. Another of said caveats is that it appears to only be running at certain times too, with a time slot of 7pm-10pm CET for those of us in Europe, and 4pm-7pm PST for those in North America. The test will be through Steam for us lot on PC as well, but obviously you can try it on PS5 too if that’s your platform of choice.
In terms of what’s available to try out, there’ll be three characters to choose from, a single explorable environment, and a couple of game modes, including the wave based Machine Excursion and the Hades-esque Cauldron Descent. You’ll also be able to wander around the game’s social hub area and test out some of the campsite customisation too (if you can find time considering you’ve only got three hours a day to try it out).
Obviously overall Hunters Gathering is looking quite different from its single-player predecessor, but we likely won’t hear much about it this weekend as those chosen for the test will have to keep their lips shut (though I’m sure somebody will dish for their five seconds of fame). Mostly I’m confused as to why Sony would double up on playtests for the weekend, but hey, if they want to keep messing up their live service ambitions, that’s on them.
