“We also know where we don’t want to be.”
Housemarque is a team with a long history of creating games for a certain type of audience. The Finnish studio, which started out making smaller, arcadey titles, has grown to be among the most prestigious PlayStation first-party studios. But despite the expanding scope of its games, its philosophy about its niche genre never changed.
Housemarque recently shipped Saros, a follow-up to Returnal. The two games share many similarities: they’re both challenging, third-person, bullet hell games with roguelike elements. They’re so similar, in fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking the former is the latter’s sequel.
The critical reception of the two games is comparable, too, but not their sales. Returnal fared much better out of the gate compared to Saros, which reports suggest has been off to a slow start. But Housemarque isn’t worried about the early sales performance.
In an interview with The Game Business, the developer touched on Saros’ early sales, and how they compare to Returnal’s own start.
“It’s funny, Returnal, when we shipped it, it started gaining traction a bit later,” said brand director Mikael Haveri. “A lot of the community got to unlock it a little bit more and then that tends to trickle down and people get more interested in it.”
Co-founder and studio head Ilari Kuittinen added: “This is just the start of the discussion and conversation with the gaming community. If you have played Saros, you know that there are a lot of things that we can do and tweak and add. We hope that we can keep on doing that for a while.”
Though Saros was released in April, it’s still relatively early days for a game from a genre that somewhat relies on reputation or word of mouth. Saros was also released during a crowded period, which made it difficult to stand out for long. For its part, Housemarque said that it will continue working on patches and incorporating player feedback.
But that also strikes at the heart of the problem: the studio’s need to build momentum so its games can become hits. The way Housemarque sees it, we’ve got something of a FromSoftware situation on our hands.
FromSoftware spent years in relative obscurity, developing uncompromising games for a niche but dedicated audience. The Japanese developer’s first big moment didn’t come until Demon’s Souls, 23 years into its life. The Dark Souls series built on that momentum, further establishing it as a household name. Its first mainstream hit, however, wouldn’t arrive for 13 more years with Elden Ring.
Housemarque views that journey as a model worth learning from. “You mentioned FromSoftware, that’s one of the points we are discussing here,” said Kuittinen. “What Demon’s Souls was or even earlier games: they’ve been doing kind of a similar genre for a very long time and built up their fan base for the longest period of time.”
Later in the same interview, Kuittinen added: “FromSoftware’s journey from King’s Field to what they are today. We’re not presuming that we would be anywhere close to that, but we will keep our core, keep educating the market that these are the coolest games you can play. That’s our goal.”
Housemarque sees it as an opportunity to educate people about the types of games it makes, and organically build a loyal following of players who will show up for each game.
“We have two unique games out: Returnal, Saros. It’s kind of a new thing that you need to educate the market [about] as well, say, ‘Hey, these flow states, this bullet ballet are really cool,’” Kuittinen went on.
The studio is careful not to jeopardise its future in that pursuit, however, keenly aware of the challenges makers of niche games have to contend with in today’s market.
“We also know where we don’t want to be,” Haveri interjected. “Which is, you know, maybe some sort of a support studio or bankrupt.”
“The point is that we are currently – and in the past – have been able to forge our own direction in the industry. And I hope that that remains a strong sentiment going forward. Whatever [it] may be, I’m sure we’ll have plans,” Haveri added.
In the Eurogamer review of Saros, Rick Lane called out the game’s narrative ambitions as being out of place with the rest of the game. “Saros’ narrative often feels at odds with the kind of experience it wants to be, but there’s no denying this is another top-tier action game from Housemarque,” he wrote.
