As Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Returnal developer Housemarque, GQ speaks to head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst and Housemarque’s cofounder Ilari Kuittinen about how the deal was struck and the Finnish studio's future.
The studio has essentially been part of playstation for a decade. You guys need to learn how to listen, the reason the Microsoft acquisitions are bad is because all the studios they bought were third party studios making games for both consoles and pc. Sony bought insomniac and housemarque. Go look at their history with playstation. How many games have they produced only for playstation? Like almost all of their games, that's the answer.
Darkborn, the reason is because SONY is not the one buying, that's the reason, don't be so blind. If SONY buys Warner is good, if SONY buys Kojima production is good too. SONY can't do wrong and MS can't do right, there is always a way to turn up things to make one looks good and the other bad. It is a nature thing, it is in the blood of the Fanboy.
Okay alb, I'm not gonna argue with you. We're talking about two different things here. This studio has made playstation exclusive games forever. That's the difference, same with insomniac. Look at spyro the dragon, ratchet and clank, resistance, spiderman, the list goes on and on for them. Now look at housemarque, when was the last time they made you Xbox fans a game? Why are you so upset since they don't affect your gamepass ecosystem anyways?
Try Harding. Did anyone complain about MS buying PlayGround Games? No because they've been making Xbox exclusives as a second party. Just like Insomniac and House lol. You get the difference? There's a difference between buying say Dooms dev that don't do single platform releases as opposed to Insomniac that literally made PlayStation exclusives published by Sony since 1997 or earlier excluding 2 and house Marque which tbh might as well have been a PS studio years ago. Again everyone was happy and glad MS finally acquired PlayGround Games. They built that relationship
You don’t see a difference in acquiring one studio after over a decade of collaboration, instead of panic buying the largest single media purchase in history in order to make up ground when you’re a whole generation behind with game innovation?
Insomniac was the biggest and best purchase to date, the fee they paid was recouped as soon as spiderman released, Ms buys studios as they are too lazy to push the studios they already own to do anything good
It's not that they don't listen, it's just that it's easier for them to pretend that Sony and MS do the same thing, because that makes MS look less scummy for the stuff that they pull.
@alb1899 The toxic atmosphere of gaming starts with people like you. You can always stop and say something supportive or constructive but instead you add comment that lacks substance and further adds fuel to the flame of the fanboy war. Competition can be fun when all gamers win.
PlayStation never acquired Quantic Dream. They were pretty much only with PlayStation and David Cage was practically begging Sony to acquire them and they ended up being picked up by a Chinese company. Long track records with PlayStation dont always yield good results.
You're either not very sharp or just being purposely obtuse. The difference between devs being bought and a publisher being bought is quite obvious. Sony has always bought devs which include devs like Naughty Dog but that's only after having a close relationship with them for years. MS's initial acquisitions didn't get too much flak because those are small devs that may have had a close relationship with MS. The Bethesda purchase however was completely different from those acquisitions.
Than it's you can go thought wrong don't blame others. Sony always buys the studios they have prior working relationship with. Sony will most likely acquire bluepoint next because vast majority of bluepoint work was on PlayStation
I personally have no issues with ms buying studios because they needed them. Overtime they didn't invest along the way so they had to buy in bulk to get their production up and running. A lot of studios that Ms bought needed resources and were struggling from game to game to find a publisher so Ms buying them provided resources and peace of mind
but when they bought Bethesda they did wrong. Because Bethesda didn't need any help funding games. They literally did that to take games away from other platforms. They literally had PlayStation 4 and 5 version of the games that scrapped.
For this reason and this reason only I really hope Sony buys out Capcom and square because only than will Xbox fanboys understand why doing such things are wrong for gamers. People on this site act like Sony is some broke company that can't afford to buying studios. They are worth over a 100 billion and playstation is a lot more important for their existence then Xbox is the Microsoft
So yeah keep making stuff up but Sony will keep acquiring more and more studios and we may even hear some more news about more acquisitions
Ah yes, knew people would try to act like this. A lot of people have mad clear distinctions about how Sony and MS handle acquisitions and deals, calling out both when needed. But sure go ahead and act like it's just Sony fanboys being hypocritical...
No Darkborn. When your executives talk nonsense about developing inhouse when it's never been the case and fans have such a lack of memory that they believe them it's really just the PR BS of the moment.
That’s kind of true in that it IS different. Sony acquires talent through a successful working relationship and a mutual fan base. MS buys them with big money.
Bro, if you can't see the difference from buying a single Studio versus an entire multiplatform publisher, then I suggest you sit down, keep quiet and STFU.
Your right, people need to listen, Zenimax games and also Bethesda games are still multiplatform.
Why is everyone assuming all their games are exclusive now that microsoft own them?
People need to stop comparing the 2's acquisitions, Zenimax games, the majority will be kept as multiplatform, Sony's studios will be solely exclusive.
I think it was a smart decision by Sony to acquire not only Housemarque, but it looks like Bluepoint also (think it is called bluepoint?), it is a whole different level of acquiring in comparison to the Zenimax acquirement.
Flawlessmic, ofcurse, I'm not saying what you want to hear. How you guys sound when you just want to invent whatever make looks bad a company just because it is not your preference? Sorry, I don't speak English.
"These guys have been pumping out quality PlayStation games for generations now and they nailed it with Returnal!' - what games are you thinking about? Looked at their list of games and nothing and nothing really stands out to me.
Well that’s on you. Resogun had huge praise when it released Stardust, and Super Stardust HD did as well. Dead Nation? Eh that’s a middle one but a lot seemed to have liked it.
A lot of their other work is pretty eh , but they do have some great games behind them considering they were indie and all
This comment reminds me of a comment a few months ago in an article about a Sony game winning a BAFTA and a user came in complaining about how the BAFTA’s don’t matter because they had never heard of them.
@nitro
There’s also the co op dungeon crawler shooter Alienation (my favorite [former] indie game of last gen) and Matterfall. I love how you can see the influence of their older games on their new projects. It really is amazing how good of a developer they became.
Seriously... most nobody has heard of any of the games they have made before Returnal. But Sony buys them and suddenly all their previous works are classics.
@killbill Have you ever played any of these games? Just because they are lesser known doesn’t mean they’re not great games. If you gave any one of them a chance you’d change your mind. The quality of their games is great for an indie studio. Their controls are always tight. Returnal is just the fruit of all those labors and I’m so glad that Sony locked them down! I can’t wait to see what they can do when they are just turned loose!
I’ve beaten near all of Housemarque but I’m not gonna hype it every day for the benefit of others.
Money says there are people that never heard of Roblox til they had kids. I never played Minecraft til I had mine. It happens. But the games were there.
Yes sony buys studios but check the history of those studios you will find a long history of them working soley with playstation for years with multiple exclusives!! Hence the more oganic buy its a more natural process that makes sense.
Mircosoft buying zenimax would be like sony buying activision blizzard out of the blue, no organic working history, outside games that can be found on every single platform
The studios sony buys are basically unofficial playstation studios by the time they do buy them.
I got no problems with what microsoft did, they were struggling and have a mountain of cash behind them so they put the money to good use, just please for the love of god stop trying to say its the same thing because it isnt.
No a better example would be that they don't trust the companies and make them work harder to prove themselves worthy of purchase, Microsoft just buys established companies who already proved themselves. Same crap
Lol whatever helps you sleep at night, i said i dont have an issue with the way ms does it. but it is different dont know why you fanboys just wont admit MS are doing it the heavy handed way which in there defence if you have that much cash then why not.
Use daddys money to paper over years and years of mistakes because sonys has put in the work over the years to do things more naturally with more auccess at a much lower cost.
Its called knowing who you get into bed with and smart business.
I think if Sony were a ~$2T marketcap company they would *probably* splash some cash as well. This "growing studios organically" makes them look good but I'm sure part of it is PR/business speak for "we can't complete, so we are doing things differently".
Lets remember that back in the mid-nineties, gaming was niche and when Sony entered the market they were the big fish, utterly dwarfing the gaming companies in terms of revenues. I don't recall them growing things organically back then, I remember them being utterly ruthless and blowing Philips, Atari, Commodore and Sega out of the console business entirely, screwing over Nintendo (who barely survived for a decade following that) and even taking out Panasonic who were also much bigger than these gaming companies but alas, not as big as Sony. They did this by acquiring a load of studios, getting a whole raft of third party exclusives and spending millions on whacky and aggressive marketing.
Don't get me wrong - integrating some of these talented smaller teams into PlayStation Studios is a good approach for them. Spending more $ does not mean better. Housemarque and Bluepoint are fantastic additions and hopefully there will be some more along these lines.
Way I read it, Nintendo screwed Sony over development of an optical drive for one of Nintendo's consoles, and Sony responded by launching the PlayStation.
Not sure why all the dislikes?! I didn't say what Sony does is bad, just different approach to the same game.
So many haters and fanboys out there.
Also, I own both, and who gives a crap, just enjoy the games and be an adult and buy both. Then you can watch the idiots argue over which is better like I do...
Sony could have also bought Zenimax if they wanted to. They've spent more than that purchase over the years in games, music, TV, movies and so on. So while you think Sony couldn't also do the same shows how clueless you are about Sony's purchases and how they are growing
Awesome! I played returnal and initially didn't like it but I couldn't stop thinking about it so just nabbed a cheap copy on ebay. Next year and beyond is going to be bonkers for gaming. Can't wait.
This is what sony does, they find an upcoming promising studio, have them do a minimum of 3 exclusive games, typically increasing support for each new game to see how they handle larger projects. If by the end of that deal they like what they see, they offer to make them 1st party, and build them into something great. They've ALWAYS done this, Bluepoint is next.
They took a different approach with Pixel Opus, if I recall they put out a call for young, uni graduates to create a small project for PlayStation, which became entwined, that started as a free giveaway, they then expanded the team to make Concrete Genie.
Fresh talent, with new ideas, hopefully we'll see Pixel Opus's next game soon.
PlayStation doesn't have bottomless pockets like Microsoft does for Xbox. Microsoft has a tramendous amount of money to just throw away, think of what they could do with all of the money they waste just because they have it. All that enviro-friendly crap, and guess how much gas their private jets they constantly use burn and do you think they care? No.
Desperation like buying a small indie developer that’s been putting out mainly exclusives anyway, or desperation like buying a major publisher that’s been mainly putting out multi platform games?
Alienation and Dead Nation would be awesome done as 3rd person titles.
I think Returnal is pretty much a massively improved Matter fall in a 3rd person horror/action setting, with some first person narrative elements.
It would also be awesome to see a game like Resogun done in a dog fighting, twin stick 3d environment. I'd love to see how they can shake things up and also break out of this mould to try a different type of game.
This had to happen. These guys have been pumping out quality PlayStation games for generations now and they nailed it with Returnal!
Congratulations Housemarque Games!
Was expected, but exciting regardless, they are also expanding the team, good news in my view.
100% Behind these guys! Lets go!
Returnal is goty for me so far. decent acquisition for sure
Yes sony buys studios but check the history of those studios you will find a long history of them working soley with playstation for years with multiple exclusives!! Hence the more oganic buy its a more natural process that makes sense.
Mircosoft buying zenimax would be like sony buying activision blizzard out of the blue, no organic working history, outside games that can be found on every single platform
The studios sony buys are basically unofficial playstation studios by the time they do buy them.
I got no problems with what microsoft did, they were struggling and have a mountain of cash behind them so they put the money to good use, just please for the love of god stop trying to say its the same thing because it isnt.