PlayStation announced early Tuesday morning, the publisher would add a new studio to its portfolio of teams. Joining the likes of Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Guerilla and more, is Housemarque. The creators behind the critically acclaimed Returnal, Alienation, and Resogun add even more punch to a prolific lineup of talent.
Hulst Discusses PlayStation’s Acquisition of Housemarque
During an interview with Famitsu and GQ, Hermen Hulst, and Housemarque founder, Ilari Kuittinen shared some info. PlayStation and Housemarque have worked together for years as the former has published multiple titles stemming from the Helsinki studio.
This really continues the trend of PlayStation wanting to be involved with a studio’s growth. Partner with the said studio for a number of years before jumping into an acquisition. We saw this with Media Molecule, we saw this with Sucker Punch and most recently, we saw this with Insomniac.
Even Hulst states in an interview with GQ, ‘these are very, very targeted acquisitions of teams we know well. The amount of collaboration between our external development group and Housemarque on the technical side. The production management side and even on the creative side has been so deep. So for us, it just makes so much sense to do that.”
Some of the major nuggets of information offer more background into the deal. The two share that acquisition discussions began well into 2020, over zoom no less which proved an experience within itself. However, according to Famitsu’s interview, the talks delayed due to Returnal. The interview also states Housemarque will be expanded and their next project will ‘ go beyond’ Returnal. Yet, we can still expect the staple, tight gameplay as a focus for what comes next. But, for now, the team is taking a well-deserved vacation in Finland.
Returnal proved Housemarque was capable of creating something of a larger scale while maintaining their core identity of concise, particle-melting gameplay. Now with Sony’s full backing through the acquisition of Housemarque, they can take steps to continue down this road.
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