Housemarque is a week away from revealing one of the PlayStation 4 titles at gamescom and Ilari Kuittinen, CEO and Co-Founder of Housemarque, caught up with GI.Biz to talk about the PlayStation 4.
First up, Housemarque has called one of their PlayStation 4 games a “spiritual successor” to Super Stardust, with Ilari explaining exactly why that is:
We think of the new game as being a “spiritual successor” to Super Stardust, simply in the sense that it’s from the same team and it’s a shoot ‘em up which we believe fans of Super Stardust and the genre as a whole will enjoy.
Kuittinen continued by talking about how an improved online experience and treating games like a service will help “build player excitement in our offerings,” then he dove into what he expects the biggest hurdles for success will be next generation:
Many factors are driving up development costs, and this has consequences on the business side. During the current console cycle, we’ve been lucky enough to create critically-acclaimed games and new IP that in most cases have also been commercially successful. In order to develop cool new experiences, there must be a certain amount of resources and funding in place. Ultimately, games will need to generate more sales or we’ll see the end of these smaller games on consoles. This would certainly be a big loss for the core gamer crowd.
The next generation of downloadable titles must find a bigger audience. As a developer, we need to find clever ways to support our games with additional content, and provide options that keep gamers playing longer.
Talking about how “we really like the PS4’s architecture and power,” Ilari brought up the deal Housemarque had signed with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to develop games specifically for PlayStation:
With only 48 employees, we would spread ourselves too thin if we developed for every system out there. As a game studio, our commitment to certain projects and partnerships excludes other possibilities. Last year, we were given the opportunity to start working on two new games with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe XDEV team, and that was a great deal for us since they’ve been a trusted partner for many years. The partnership allows us to continue creating the cool core games we want to concentrate on, and also get our hands on new hardware as soon as it’s available.
Have you already planned ahead and will be watching the gamescom press conference from Sony? Let us know in the comments below.
