A History of Housemarque Part I: The House That Arcade Built
Every now and again, something may happen that causes you to stop what you’re doing and really take in what you’re seeing; truly making you think about how wild or impressive that thing might be. It just so happens that what I just described is exactly what happened to me when I saw Housemarque’s Returnal for the first time. Being a prominent Xbox player, I’ve never had much hands-on history with the studio’s games, but have been acutely aware of Housemarque and the arcade-style approach to their titles; an approach that was constant throughout their history up until April of this year. A third person shooter, roguelike dripping with Ridley Scott’s “Alien” vibes and enough polish to make my jaw drop from its eerie sci-fi beauty? Hell yes. Returnal is a product of a four-year spell where the studio released virtually nothing aside from blog posts announcing that “arcade is dead” and their longstanding commitment to the genre was ending. We caught a glimpse of a potential future riding the tails of the battle royale craze with Stormdivers, followed by a subsequent announcement of its indefinite delay.
Putting Stormdivers on ice was undoubtedly done to have all hands on deck for Returnal’s development - a development cycle that had in fact started three years prior, unbeknownst to most people outside of the studio. However, what struck me was that for an (at the time) indie studio claiming arcade was dead, Returnal seems to capture the DNA and trappings of that arcade style that Housemarque has refined for over 20 years. This inspired me to dive into the past and take a look at their journey, the accompanying products, and reception. The journey of how one indie studio building their foundation developing PC titles in the mid 90s found themselves under Sony’s wing both as an indie with heavy support during the PlayStation 4 generation, and developing one of the first next-gen AAA showcases for the PlayStation 5; a game that will likely be many people’s game of the year.
The Early Years
Ilari Kuittinen
In July of 1995, what would eventually come to be Finland’s longest standing games studio was born. Housemarque was founded by Ilari Kuittinen and Harri Tikannen. It was a product of fusing the two founders' previous studios, Bloodhouse and Terramarque, both of which were Finland’s first two development studios. The work started quickly given that Tikannen and Kuttinen both had games in production at their previous studios. The early years of Housemarque were spent working on these early games, as well as signing publishing contracts for a DOS port of Bloodhouse’s Super Stardust, a shoot ‘em up. At the time, Super Stardust already received international acclaim, but we’ll put a pin in that for now. This was followed by Alien Incident, a point and click adventure game for MS-DOS. Both titles would release the same year in 1996.
At the time, video games were nowhere near the cultural monolith they are today. Even E3 was in its infancy, having only happened for the first time the year prior, claiming the identity of a suit and tie trade show rather than being the fan driven convention it is today. Housemarque’s whole philosophy at this period was to adapt the arcade games that had inspired them and create more updated versions of those games for current players. With this philosophy in mind, the studio got back to work with the release of 1997’s The Reap, their take on Sega’s 1982 arcade side-scrolling shoot ‘em up hit, Zaxxon. Though it didn’t reinvent the wheel by any sense of the imagination, The Reap released to positive reviews, praising the games animations, lighting effects, and its success in bringing a game like Sega’s fifteen-year-old hit to the then modern age. The German outlet, Gamestar even went on to say that “The Reap is by far the most beautiful program of its kind.”
Despite the critical success that Housemarque had received for its first few outings, the lack of tangible data on the sales of those early titles suggests that the studio hadn’t been able to seriously knock it out of the park commercially yet. Sure, Super Stardust was beloved, but it apparently didn’t do numbers quite like the studio’s 1999 follow-up, Supreme Snowboarding. While it can be considered archaic by today's standards, and was occasionally criticized for its lack of content upon release, Supreme Snowboarding was praised as the best snowboarding game of its time. Released in the west under the title Boarder Zone, it was the first snowboarding game to take full advantage of 3D graphics cards on the PC. It went on to sell over 1.5 million copies worldwide, in part thanks to strange bundles such as being paired with boxes of Kellogg's cereal in Denmark. The snowboarding hit was released on PC’s and the Gameboy Color within the same year. With this success, Housemarque now had a half decade’s worth of experience accompanied by numerous accounts of critical praise, as well as the first hit title in the history of Finnish game development, to carry with them into the new millennium.
The 21st Century
The decade of teal/pink color schemes and “extreme” marketing campaigns came to a close as the world stepped into the year 2000. To many skeptics’ surprise, planes didn’t fall from the sky and the world didn’t bow to computer overlords nor fail to keep spinning due to outdated codes. However, despite not being as drastic as a computer related apocalypse, something else did occur that would change the world of video games forever. In the fall of 2001, Microsoft would officially throw their gloves into the ring of the gaming industry releasing the Xbox alongside Halo: Combat Evolved. The new state of the art console would be where Housemarque’s next title, the sequel to Supreme Snowboarding, would find a home just one year later in 2002. Transworld Snowboarding took a more realistic approach to its gameplay, reviewing fairly well, but leaving something to be desired. Outlets like IGN mentioned an “unfinished feel” to the game. Despite user reviews being fairly positive, the sequel would fail to become as much of a household name with competitors such as SSX and Amped taking the spotlight.
Housemarque would return three years later in 2005 in a fashion that could be simply described as strange. The studio released Gizmondo Motocross exclusively for The Gizmondo, which is noted by many as the worst selling handheld system in history. The handheld’s creation and brief history is a story in itself, and similar to this move by Housemarque, a strange one at that. However, in 2007 and 2008, the studio would return in a more recognizable suit developing titles for both the PlaySation 3 and Xbox 360’s popular ever-evolving digital marketplaces. 2008’s Golf: Tee It Up! for the Xbox Live Arcade received mixed reviews. While being fun and competent in what it set out to be, it seemed that a lack of content, a DLC wall, and shallow mechanics made it hard to justify spending time with when similar titles were readily available with much more to offer.
It was the 2007 update of Super Stardust for the PS3, aptly re-titled Super Stardust HD, that would bring Housemarque back into the mainstream discussion. The first of many Housemarque games to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the remake was a masterfully crafted weapon to be wielded by PlayStation’s digital storefront. It provided stark competition for the Xbox 360’s arcade hit, Geometry Wars, and catapulted the then fourteen-year-old classic into the forefront of the PlayStation community. Industry veteran and founder of Digital Foundry, Richard Leadbetter, reviewed the remake for Eurogamer that year stating that “Super Stardust HD is an absolute star, the jewel in the crown of the PlayStation Store and quite possibly the best purists’ shooter to appear on console since the legendary Geometry Wars.” Super Stardust HD found its way in front of the eyes of a whole new generation while simultaneously looking better than ever in 1080p for the veterans who had blasted their way through the game’s 30 levels over a decade before.
Some games age like fine wine and Super Stardust was one of them. Critics and consumers alike found it a difficult task finding gripes about Super Stardust HD. With glowing reviews from IGN, Eurogamer, and various gaming outlets, Housemarque had released an indie remaster that, according to Metacritic, was the eleventh best scored game on the PlayStation 3 that year. For context, this scored higher than major releases like Guitar Hero 3 and Ubisoft’s new AAA franchise, Assassins Creed. Super Stardust HD earned yet another boost in the following generation with its port to the PlayStation 4, as well as a PSVR iteration. For an indie arcade title to achieve that at the time, let alone in the same year that the original Modern Warfare and Uncharted were released, is nothing short of impressive. While I'm sure the team revelled in their success in rejuvenating one of the first games the company ever officially worked on, Housemarque was still just gearing up for the modern era.
Written by Justin Hyde