Sony has announced that Housemarque, the developer behind PS5 exclusive Returnal, is now officially part of the Playstation Studios family.
Sony outlined the move earlier today in a blog post by Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios.
Housemarque’s previous work includes the aforementioned third-person action-adventure roguelike Returnal, twin-stick shooter Dead Nation and the side-scrolling PS4 shooter Matterfall. The studio has always primarily developed for Sony’s consoles.
Housemarque’s only Xbox developed games include Transworld Snowboarding, Golf: Tee It Up! and Angry Birds Trilogy.
The developer joins several studios under the Playstation Studios banner, including Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch Productions and Guerilla games.
Moving forward, Housemarque will exclusively develop titles for Sony. Considering the success of Returnal, which NME called ‘the first truly essential next-gen experience’, it’s likely Sony might be interested in securing a sequel.
Ilari Kuittinen, who is the co-founder and managing director of Housemarque commented on the move: “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 artform.”
Hulst detailed his excitement at the developer joining PlayStation Studios: “ I have been a fan of Housemarque since the studio’s early days when they introduced Super Stardust HD to PlayStation fans.”
Interestingly, Sony initially uploaded the wrong image for the announcement, instead revealing a PlayStation Studios image with Bluepoint Studios included. Bluepoint Games is best known for its work on remakes like Shadow Of The Colossus and Demon Souls.
Elsewhere, ex-Rainbow Six pro player Pengu has alleged that players are exploiting a number of audio bugs in competitive play. Pendu recorded examples of the bugs in action, uploading them to Twitter for fans to see.
The post Sony acquires ‘Returnal’ developer Housemarque, rolling them into PlayStation Studios appeared first on NME.
