In its recent Investors Day presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed that it considers Housemarque’s Returnal a “successful new IP” alongside Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima.
That’s quite a feat for the Finnish studio as it transitions from making smaller, arcade games to AAA experiences – one that’s controversially priced $70. Returnal‘s commercial success is further proven by the impressive player statistics released by Housemarque on Twitter. According to the developer, PlayStation 5 owners have spent a cumulative total of 5,806,493 hours playing the game.
Potential spoilers ahead
Players killed 1015.9 million enemies, with Hollowseeker the popular weapon of choice. However, they also suffered 9.02 million player deaths – a majority of them caused by Phrike.
It’s been almost a month since our fantastic launch of Returnal! To celebrate here are some statistics showing how you are all adjusting to Atropos!
Thanks for playing from all of us at Housemarque pic.twitter.com/EanrlRGtSj— Housemarque (@Housemarque) May 28, 2021
Speaking of bosses, Housemarque penned a lengthy blog, explaining its approach to the Hyperion fight. It’s an interesting read for those who want a behind-the-scenes look at Returnal‘s development.
The studio wrote:
We’ve been very happy to see Returnal resonating so strongly with players, and this time we wanted to do a deep dive into one of our Bosses. In general, Boss battles have always been an essential test of skill for players in action games, and of course they’ve been a strong staple of the Housemarque formula in our past titles as well. With Returnal we really wanted to dedicate some time to create something special for our Boss encounters, and provide players with some powerful and memorable moments. We’ve been thrilled to see that players have been enjoying our Bosses so far.
