Sony purchases Returnal developer Housemarque after successful PS5 debut

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  Returnaling, over and over, to remember the things we shot. [credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque ]

Sony has announced that it has acquired Finnish indie developer Housemarque just two months after the launch of Housemarque’s Returnal as one of the highest-profile exclusives on the young PlayStation 5 console.

Housemarque has a long history with Sony consoles, dating back to 2007’s Super Stardust HD on the then-new PlayStation 3 and running through PS4 launch standout Resogun. Housemarque is also the studio behind the 2017 PS4 twin-stick shooter Nex Machina, which Ars’ Sam Machkovech gave an honorable mention in his Games of the Year list at the time. The last Housemarque game on a non-Sony console was 2008’s little-remembered Golf: Tee it Up on the Xbox 360.

“It’s pretty hard to imagine a launch of a PlayStation platform without there being something from Housemarque,” Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The games they create are just so different from everything else we’ve got, so I love the diversity of the experiences that we’re able to offer.”