Sony Acquires Returnal Developer Housemarque

Sony has a new first-party studio with their acquisition of Housemarque, the developer behind the PS5 exclusive Returnal.

Head of PlayStation Studios, Herman Hulst, broke the news on the PlayStation Blog where he celebrated the new addition to Sony’s first-party suite of developers.

“Housemarque’s recent release of Returnal proves the studio is one with incredible vision, capable of creating memorable new games that resonate with our community,” Hulst said. “This addition enhances the creative force of PlayStation Studios, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Housemarque.”

Ilari Kuittinen, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Housemarque, also released a statement in which they shared their excitement about joining officially joining PlayStation Studios.

“We are so excited to finally join the PlayStation Studios family,” says Kuittinen. “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.”

They also looked to the future, saying that the team at Housemarque can “truly grow” into their own place in the industry now and “show what Housemarque can create with no limitations” now that they have the backing of Sony.

This is an acquisition that was a long time coming. Housemarque and Sony have had a great relationship ever since they first released Super Stardust HD on the PS3 in 2007. Since then they’ve gone on to release more acade-style games such as Dead Nation and Resogun, the latter of which was a major hit during the launch of the PS4. Following the release of Nex Machina and Matterfall in 2017, the studio famously released a blog post stating that “arcade is dead,” and announcing they would no longer be making the type of games they were known for due to poor sales.

Returnal marked the first game since their proclamation, and though it’s a very different game from their previous projects, it retains their signature fast-paced, high intensity gameplay. The game was a critical success and has led the team to where they are now.

Housemarque may not be the only studio Sony’s acquiring. In a now deleted tweet spotted by Twitter user Nibellion, PlayStation Japan also announced that Bluepoint Games (developer of the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls remakes) had been acquiried as well. We’ll have to wait for official confirmation on that, but if it’s true, it will be yet another great and long awaited addition to PlayStation’s first-party development teams.