Rumour: Has Housemarque Signed an Exclusive Deal with Sony?

Housemarque is in an interesting position right now. The Helsinki studio, famous for its superlative arcade experiences like Nex Machina and Resogun, is currently working on its futuristic battle royale shooter, Stormdivers. However, while there doesn't appear to be much interest in this PC-only action game, potentially more exciting is its next project, an unannounced triple-A title. It seems like a developer that's struggling to find a new identity, so the question is: what's it up to right now?

Well, there are a couple of small hints that it could be working with Sony on its next game. Earlier in the year, Shuhei Yoshida himself paid a visit to the Finnish studio, which seemed to suggest an ongoing relationship between the two parties. Much more recently, Wccftech spoke with Housemarque CEO Ilari Kuittinen. During the course of the interview, he spoke about partnering with platform holders: "Sometimes you need exclusive deals because money doesn’t grow on trees".

So, it seems the studio isn't against the idea of signing exclusives again. With Shu dropping by a while back, and knowledge that Housemarque has more in the works beyond Stormdivers, it doesn't seem out of the question that its next game could emerge a PlayStation exclusive. There's even chatter that Sony could acquire Housemarque altogether.

It wouldn't surprise us to see a PS5 game from the studio, but obviously this is all pretty speculative at this stage. There's a little bit of smoke, but nothing quite substantial enough to make a judgment call. Hopefully we'll find out more soon.