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Sony have bought Housemarque, developers of Returnal and Nex MachinaArcade is dead, but Housemarque aren’t
Arcade is dead, but Housemarque aren’t
The news wasannounced on the PlayStation blog, with Housemarque co-founder Ilari Kuittinen writing that the acquisition would “secure the legacy of the oldest game studio in Finland.”
Nex Machina - Launch Trailer | PS4Watch on YouTube
Nex Machina - Launch Trailer | PS4
The studio has gone through substantial changes since Nex Machina’s launch in 2017, with the studioannouncing at the time that “arcade is dead”. Nex Machina was critically acclaimed but it hadn’t “sold in significant numbers”.
That was a shame, given Nex Machina was excellent. “There will be more twin-stick shooters, probably excellent ones, but if time stopped and all we were left with was Nex Machina, then that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing,” wrote Fraser Brown in ourNex Machina review.
Afterwards, Housemarque cancelled some projects and consolodated their teams to work on a single, more ambitious project. That project was Returnal, a third-person action game and PlayStation 5 exclusive released earlier this year to critical acclaim (and apparent commercial success).
