Today Sony announced the acquisition of Housemarque, the Finnish developer responsible for the PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal. Housemarque will now be the 13th studio within the PlayStation studio family.
The acquisition was announced this morning and accompanied by a tweet from PlayStation Japan with what seems to be an accidental image suggesting that the studio will also be acquiring developer Bluepoint. The tweet has since been deleted, but it seems that PlayStation is working to acquire more developers to build upon its collection of PlayStation 5 exclusive titles.
Based in Helsinki, Finland, Housemarque was co-founded in 1995 by Harri Tikkanen and Ilari Kuittinen. The game developer has been making games for both console and PC for over 20 years, with a majority of their recent games being made exclusively for the PlayStation.
Housemaque has been making games for PlayStation consoles since 2007, including the top-down shoot ‘em up zombie game Dead Nation for the PlayStation 3 and the RPG alien invasion game Alienation for the PlayStation 4. (Paste’s favorite PlayStation 4 launch title, Resogun, was a Housemarque game.), Just two months after Housemarque’s first PlayStation 5 release Returnal, the developer will be joining the global development operation of PlayStation Studios.
The specific terms of the deal, including acquisition cost, are not being revealed due to contractual commitments. Sony Interactive Entertainment said that day-to-day operations will continue to be run by Housemarque’s current management team alongside the PlayStation Studios External Development Team.
“After more than 15 years of successfully collaborating, we’re excited to amplify our potential even further and join PlayStation Studios,” said Kuittinen.
This acquisition is one of the first major deals for Sony since Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda Softworks in March. The two companies seem to be in an arms race as they continue to gather developers, and console exclusive titles seem to be the next phase in the competition between PlayStation and Xbox.