Over a decade after the last Killzone game came out, Sony has reminded fans that it was once a thing via The Last of Us 2 Remastered.
Guerrilla’s sci-fi first-person shooter series, once seen as a Halo killer, last saw a release with PlayStation 4 launch title Killzone Shadow Fall in 2013. But we haven’t seen a new game in the series since, with Sony shutting down Shadow Fall’s servers in 2022.
Now, with the release of The Last of Us 2 Remastered, we have a reminder of Killzone’s existence via an in-game T-shirt — and it’s fair to say fans have noticed. While The Last of Us 2 Remastered references a number of dormant PlayStation franchises, such as Resistance, The Getaway, Twisted Metal, and WipEout, it's Killzone that's sparked the most vociferous reaction. Here's a snippet:
as a killzone fan we've been LONG, LONG overdue for a new game. Just boggles my mind that of all the ways for sony to remind themselves that Killzone DOES exist…it's in the form a TLOU ll t-shirt. No new game so far, nothing.
Just a freaking t-shirt.
Ugh…. pic.twitter.com/lrRzwLOPlt
— Steven A (@SwitchbackSpeed) January 18, 2024
Sincerely wish Guerrilla would make an FPS game in the future. Killzone was PEAK! pic.twitter.com/Yx1SBOVzxT
— macha (@neonmacha) January 18, 2024
For the first time in 10 years, they have acknowledged Killzone.
But in the form of a freaking T-shirt in a game that doesn't even need a Remaster.#TLOU #TLOU2Remastered pic.twitter.com/aQX3XHXMOV
— Nicola Polito (@N7Necromorph) January 18, 2024
Killzone mentioned??? Bro Sony you cowards do something with your goated IP please don't let it rot ｡:ﾟ(;´∩`;)ﾟ:｡ https://t.co/dHVAncYXR6 pic.twitter.com/GUk4k8Kn6J
— Ducky 🇬🇧♱ (@duckyle2nd) January 18, 2024
That killzone shirt kills me inside https://t.co/HqDxo03PYt pic.twitter.com/8QMtuJIVQv
— Kapitan-Hussar 🏳️⚧️- 🗡Exia princess🗡 (@HussarKapitan) January 17, 2024
they give us helgan shirt but no new killzone
its hellghover https://t.co/Vb0uIdabVR— xavier fuentes (@mechagodzull569) January 17, 2024
That Killzone shirt is just dumping a gallon of lemon juice on a deep wound. https://t.co/WHQbx5vAqj
— Hayden (@haydentrib) January 18, 2024
In the 10 years since Shadow Fall’s release, Sony has given no indication that it’s ready to return to the Killzone franchise. Guerrilla instead followed Shadow Fall with 2017’s blockbuster hit Horizon Zero Dawn, which went on to sell over 20 million copies. It comes as no surprise that the studio has focused on Horizon ever since, with Horizon Forbidden West coming out in 2022 and PlayStation VR2 launch title Horizon Call of the Mountain coming out in 2023. A multiplayer Horizon game is currently in the works, as well as a third mainline Horizon game.
In July, Guerrilla studio director Jan Bart van Beek said the Horizon franchise will be around "for a very long while", with plans for Aloy and friends way beyond a Forbidden West sequel. There’s even a Horizon 2074 TV series that will seemingly retell Aloy's story from a new perspective.
That doesn’t leave much room for a Killzone revival, unfortunately. "Sons and daughters of Helghan let us cope for a Killzone come back," said redditor alefava99.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
