Horizon Steel Frontiers: Gameplay, platforms, and other details

Horizon Steel Frontiers, the Horizon MMO that was allegedly leaked has now officially been confirmed, during G-Star 2025 in South Korea. NCSoft is working alongside Guerilla to create an MMO set in the popular Horizon universe. So far, we’ve seen a little bit of pre-alpha footage, and some discussion about the game from the developers, and it does look pretty exciting.

If you enjoyed the gameplay of the previous two Horizon titles, then it sounds like there’s going to be something for fans to love about Horizon Steel Frontiers as more details come out, such as it so far being confirmed for both PC and Mobile. If you were a fan of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, this reveal was no doubt good news.

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Horizon Steel Frontiers gameplay: All confirmed features

Unfortunately, the details for Horizon Steel Frontiers is still pretty vague, but we do know a few things about how the gameplay is supposed to function. This upcoming MMO, that was once rumored to be cancelled, is very much alive, and is set in a section of the Horizon world we haven’t explored before, in the Deadlands, which appears to be reminiscent of the American southwest (New Mexico, Arizona).

We do know that we will still be doing battle with the colossal mechanized life forms, but you won’t be doing it alone. As an MMO, players will be teaming up to do battle with these powerful machine beasts, but it’s not all harmony and togetherness. Tribes will be fighting one another for resources as well.

Aloy, the original Horizon protagonist, focused on ranged Bow combat, with the occasional Spear attack, but we now also know that players will have access to a mighty Greatsword in Horizon Steel Frontiers. It does look like we’ll have a lot more melee combat in this game, which is exciting.

It looks like we're going to be able to mix it up in melee more than ever before in Horizon (Image via NCSoft)

Similar to Monster Hunter, it also looked like cooking will be an important part of the game, likely to add a variety of buffs, judging by the trailer. There will be other cool mechanics, like after you damage a part of a machine, you can use the Pullcaster to grapple on, and set traps on them for extra damage.

You can also grab weapons the machines drop, and put them on your mount, so you can access them later. Finally, you can also make your own character, hailing from a variety of tribes, with a very in-depth character customization system. There are plenty of options so your character can look how you prefer them to.

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Horizon Steel Frontiers platforms: Will it be on Mobile and consoles?

How cool would this look on a PS5 Pro? (Image via NCSoft)

Horizon Steel Frontiers will be available on both Mobile and PC platforms, but there is no current confirmation of any console release. However, we do know that it will be available on PC via the NCSoft Purple app, and likely both iOS and Android. Anything further is currently unknown, but if we should hear otherwise, we’ll update you accordingly. As this is a Sony IP, I imagine at some point, there will be a reveal that it will be on their console.

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Will Horizon Steel Frontiers have crossplay and cross-progression?

Machine life forms large and small will be hunted down when this goes live (Image via NCSoft)

NCSoft has confirmed that Horizon Steel Frontiers will feature crossplay, but at this time we’re not 100% certain on whether cross-progression will be a feature. We do think it’s likely, and have reached out for confirmation from NCSoft. If we hear back on cross-progression, we’ll also update this.

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Is the release date known for Horizon Steel Frontiers?

A variety of tribe designs will be available in the character customization suite (Image via NCSoft)

There is no release date currently for Horizon Steel Frontiers, at the very least, given during the presentation at G-Star 2025. As we only saw pre-Alpha footage for this upcoming MMO, it’s likely that we’re not going to see a full launch until sometime in 2026 or even 2027. Nothing has been confirmed officially by NCSoft at this time.

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Edited by Jason Parker