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Housemarque Teases New PS5 Exclusive

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The confirmation of the team working on a new IP comes the way of Ilari Kuittinen, managing director at Housemarque, who noted its "early days," but the current project is a new IP and in the pre-production stage. Below, you can view the whole comment with all of its context.

"Well, the jury is still out there," said Kuttinen when asked about how the developer can hold on to its roots in the arcade genre in a market quickly leaving behind this legacy of games. "We're one of the very last dinosaurs making arcade games. Nex Machina, a few years ago, was very much a shoot-'em-up game in the style of the coin-ops from the '80s. That's sort of a clue. But it's interesting. We've been thinking about that. We had our stint working on multiplayer games, because a few years back it seemed like you needed to have some kind of multiplayer experience. We tried that, and we really didn't do it as well. But it's early days with us starting a new game, a new IP, concepting it out. We'll see what comes with that."

"We're really trying to hold on to that identity, as you mentioned. It's wonderful right now that gaming has grown and evolved so much that there's so much variety and diversity of game experiences," adds Harry Krueger, game director at Housemarque. "They can all peacefully coexist. There can be live service games, multiplayer games, games with many different sensibilities. Returnal is just another voice. At this stage we're quite proud of what we accomplished with Returnal, and we're quite excited to pursue that same trajectory as a company."
 

CamHostage

Member
Agree. I just hope it isn't a sequel. Just let the singular experience be what it is. Do something new.

Housemarque has no sequels to its name in over 25 years (unless you count the variations of Stardust/Super Stardust,) so it seems unlikely? (For better or worse.) This next project will be their first new title after the Sony acquisition, so we'll see if that changes anything, but they seem to like the idea of singular experiences as you do.

Maybe they'll do with the Returnal formula what they did with Dead Nation and bring a spiritual successor out that is similar in base mechanics but unique in structural design and combat scenarios?

Also, a MinnMax piece of some lost Housemarque projects. They say they never throw ideas away (I wonder if Returnal was built on a hackday session with pieces of that Stormdivers MOBA project?), so maybe there's a clue in here of what they may try next...

 
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tassletine

Member
I wish I liked their games more but they never seem to advance much in mechanics. They never really try anything new and reskin things a lot.
Their games are a bit too laid back for me. I miss Treasure dearly.
 

SSfox

Member
Looking forward for it. Returnal not only was great game, but also very unique in this period of many open world games, don't get me wrong i love "well made" open world games, but it's nice to have variety in games.
 

yurinka

Member
As I remember in an interview during the Returnal launch they already mentioned that after Returnal they were going to work on a bigger game.

Looking forward to whatever these very talented folks do. Nice to see it's another AAA new IP, let's hope it keeps their arcade-y style. Now as a 1st party team, and being experienced with AAA after Returnal, I think it will be even better.
 
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CamHostage

Member
As I remember in an interview during the Returnal launch they already mentioned that after Returnal they were going to work on a bigger game.


The opposite, I think? I can't seem to find the thing I saw last night where they said "smaller", but I know I caught that somewhere and I'll post it if my history file brings it up. Of course, things change, and that could have been a while ago, so we'll see.

Dean Takahashi did an interview with Housemarque just yesterday:

(*EDIT- Ack, same interview, just this is the source.)

"We’re one of the very last dinosaurs making arcade games. Nex Machina, a few years ago, was very much a shoot-’em-up game in the style of the coin-ops from the ‘80s. That’s sort of a clue... it’s early days with us starting a new game, a new IP, concepting it out. "
 
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yurinka

Member
The opposite, I think? I can't seem to find the thing I saw last night where they said "smaller", but I know I caught that somewhere and I'll post it if my history file brings it up. Of course, things change, and that could have been a while ago, so we'll see.

Dean Takahashi did an interview with Housemarque just yesterday:

(*EDIT- Ack, same interview, just this is the source.)
The multiplayer game they mention there is one that they shown before releasing Returnal (Stormdivers, it got canned). Returnal, event if went AAA, they kept their arcade feel.

Back in May 2021 (soon after Returnal release) Housemarque said:

""Yes, we've been working on two projects previously, and now with Returnal we have of course only one project. It's hard to say if we will continue with one or two projects in the future, but the idea of us now being able to establish ourselves with Returnal will be defining the future type of titles we want to make. The idea is that we now want to show we're not just a "Resogun-studio." We can do all kinds of things, and from our studio's perspective that means that we want to go for these bigger types of experiences. Now, we still love arcade. We still love smaller games as well. Who knows? Maybe 26 years in the future we'll do more of that as well. But that really depends on how successful we are able to build ourselves with the types of experiences that Returnal now is representing.""
 
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saintjules

Member
Returnal is amazing, I liked it so much I even got the platinum trophy.

It has an amazing atmosphere, nice graphics, fun and challenging gameplay.

See, that's what I mean. The atmosphere was so great that it kept you immersed. Almost to the point you were actually in it yourself.

You can tell when a game is great when it can pull your mind into it's own universe and not think about anything else. Not exactly Isekai, but you get what I mean.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Speaking to VGC in a soon-to-be-published interview, Eevi Korhonen discussed the future of the studio, and what excites her about working at the Finland-based developer going forward.

“Returnal was so ambitious,” Korhonen told VGC. “We dreamt super big, but we still had to leave so much on the cutting room floor. All of these ideas and narrative systems. I’m super excited to pick up those pieces and see how those fit our new IP story.

“We didn’t quite have the handle on how big [Returnal] was going to be, building for a new platform on a new engine with a new team, all of those things require some learning. Now we have that team that has gone through the fire and learned how to build a game like Returnal. So now we get to start off stronger.”
 

kyoji

Member

Speaking to VGC in a soon-to-be-published interview, Eevi Korhonen discussed the future of the studio, and what excites her about working at the Finland-based developer going forward.

“Returnal was so ambitious,” Korhonen told VGC. “We dreamt super big, but we still had to leave so much on the cutting room floor. All of these ideas and narrative systems. I’m super excited to pick up those pieces and see how those fit our new IP story.

“We didn’t quite have the handle on how big [Returnal] was going to be, building for a new platform on a new engine with a new team, all of those things require some learning. Now we have that team that has gone through the fire and learned how to build a game like Returnal. So now we get to start off stronger.”
Harry Krueger is infatuated with horror themes, here's hoping its a new take on the genre with this new IP!

Also good to know that there could be a Returnal sequel in the future, The game is a GEM!
 

Neolombax

Member
Currrently playing Returnal and cannot believe I missed out on this game on release. What an amazing game. I am now a huge fan of their work! The game is hard and its still kicking my ass, but the gameplay is just so good and satisfying that I dont even mind.
 
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