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Returnal was the biggest game that developer Housemarque had ever made. And the team is staffing up even more for its next title.
According to a list of speakers for the Reboot conference in Croatia, Studio Head Ilari Kuittinen noted in his bio that the studio has grown to 110 people. This is up from the 80 employees it had near the launch of its roguelite shooter in 2021.
What is Housemarque’s next game after Returnal?
Kuittinen didn’t hint at what those 110 people are developing, and Housemarque hasn’t been that much more open, either, but other members of the team have let it slip that it is making a new IP. Sony’s support has also allowed the team to “go even wilder” and that a sequel to Returnal is only a possibility after the studio’s next title.
And while Returnal 2 won’t be Housemarque’s next game, the studio is planning to use canned concepts from Returnal in that mystery title.
“We dreamt super big [for Returnal], but we still had to leave so much on the cutting room floor,” said Senior Narrative Designer Eevi Korhonen. “All of these ideas and narrative systems. I’m super excited to pick up those pieces and see how those fit our new IP story. We didn’t quite have the handle on how big [Returnal] was going to be, building for a new platform on a new engine with a new team, all of those things require some learning. Now we have that team that has gone through the fire and learned how to build a game like Returnal. So now we get to start off stronger.”