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

Aloy in Horizon Hunters Gathering reveal cinematic — (Image credit: Guerrilla Games)

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) 2026-02-24T18:36:31.822Z

The 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 both, are getting a bit of short shrift here.

There may not be a huge amount of crossover in the audiences, and the Hunters Gathering playtest is only taking a limited number of testers, but it's the optics of the thing I find baffling. It's not unreasonable to say that Bungie's fate hangs on Marathon, and so you'd think Sony would want to keep that path as clear as possible—yet here it is cramming in a separate playtest for a completely different big-time game series on the same weekend. Maybe it's just me, but it seems a little weird, and not particularly great for ol' Bungie.

So, to recap: The Marathon server slam begins on February 26 and will be playable on Steam—it's open to all, so you can just download the client when it goes live and have at it. The Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest kicks off a day later, on February 27, also on Steam, but for that one you'll have to sign up to get in through the PlayStation beta program. Invites to that one will be rolled out in the week leading up to the test (which we're into now, so keep an eye on your email), and if you don't get in this time, "you may still be eligible for future tests."

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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