Developer Housemarque has penned a letter addressed to Returnal players ahead of the game’s launch, discussing general challenges involved in game development, especially during COVID-19. Reflecting upon its past and the last four year’s of Returnal‘s development, the studio specifically thanked Sony for providing it with the opportunity to work on something “very risky” while providing “fantastic” support.
“In the age when game publishers are taking less and less creative risks, we are truly thankful to our publishing partner Sony, who has given us an opportunity to work on something very risky and has given fantastic support during the whole project,” wrote Housemarque. “We are forever grateful for having this opportunity.”
The developer went on to thank fans who have been supporting the studio through the years, adding that shipping games is no small feat.
“Shipping games is hard,” Housemarque concluded. “Shipping games that are bigger, more ambitious than the company has ever delivered before featuring things that we’ve never done in our previous games, like translating Housemarque arcade gameplay from 2D to 3rd person action and adding substantial storytelling elements, is even harder. Then adding a total new challenge in a form of COVID-19 pandemic forcing us mostly to work remotely, we can start talking about some additional challenges to game development, which is never easy in the first place!”
Returnal will release on the PlayStation 5 tomorrow, April 30th, nearly six years after its initial concept. Make sure to check out our review and let us know what you think of the game when you get your hands on it.
[Source: Housemarque]
