In recent years, Housemarque mostly made games exclusively for PlayStation consoles. Now they’re definitely making exclusives.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Housemarque was already a PlayStation Studios shop. Over the venerable studio’s 25-year history – not counting the few years before, as Bloodhouse and Terramarque – over 50% of the games it has developed have been PlayStation console exclusives.
Since 2012’s Angry Birds Trilogy, which released on PS3 and Xbox 360, every game has been a PlayStation console exclusive, across the PS3, PS Vita, PS4, and now the PS5. Some of those games have been notable, too, including 2013’s Resogun, Nex Machina in 2017, and this year’s excellent Returnal – probably the best PlayStation 5 exclusive to date, until Ratchet and Clank rocked up a couple of weeks back.
But it wasn’t actually a first-party PlayStation studio. At least, until a day or so ago, when PlayStation tweeted this:
Welcome to the family, @Housemarque!
Developer of Returnal, Super Stardust, and Dead Nation is the newest member of PlayStation Studios. Full details: https://t.co/2QboOOzQ1r pic.twitter.com/1NXMw0cwXf
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 29, 2021
In a PlayStation blog post, Ilari Kuittinen, co-founder and managing director of Housemarque, had this to say:
“Today is a big day for Housemarque and it has been over 26 years in the making. Our strong partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment started with Super Stardust HD on PS3 and since then we have made arcade-inspired games for all of the PlayStation platforms. With Returnal for PS5, our most recent release, our biggest foray into third-person action gaming solidified our voice and brand in the industry as delivering unique and quality player experiences.
“We are so excited to finally join the PlayStation Studios family! This gives our studio a clear future and a stable opportunity to continue delivering on gameplay-centric approaches, while still experimenting with new methods of narrative delivery and pushing the boundaries of this modern art form. Locally here in Helsinki, this also means that we will officially expand the PlayStation family to a growing industry hub and secure the legacy of the oldest game studio in Finland.”
So that’s it, official, then. Housemarque was mostly making PlayStation exclusives beforehand, but they’re definitely making exclusives now. Exclusively.
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