From a studio that once specialised in small-scale niche games to becoming one of Sony’s premier developers for action titles, Housemarque’s journey has been nothing short of meteoric. Their last project, Returnal, successfully showcased their expertise in action-packed gameplay centred around bullet hell, and that has naturally led to high expectations for their next project, Saros.
With an intriguing teaser introducing the protagonist, Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli), preparing to battle a colossal entity, Saros appears to be an evolution of the DNA established by Returnal, promising an even more refined experience.
And PlayStation seems to be all in on the project, with a reportedly overall budget comparable to that of Remedy Games’ Alan Wake 2, which comes to about €70 million. This is likely in recognition of the two entities’ long and successful working relationship. The acquisition of Housemarque in 2021 seems to be only the beginning, paving the way for a big-budget project like this, something that would have been impossible as an independent studio which had to take on smaller projects to survive constantly.
“On every sales and conference trip, you wondered if this was the company’s last outing,” said Housemarque CEO Illari Kuttinen in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat. “The difficult times were made easier by the fact that we were constantly negotiating new projects, so there was always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
But as the studio put out more hits on Sony’s console, it became clearer that joining the gaming giant’s family of studios was the right move. “We had the feeling that it was better to try to get into a big family than to stay independent for the next few years,” Kuittinen added. “We thought we had to do the deal now.”
Saros has been in development since 2022, indicating that significant progress has already been made.
Saros is slated for release in 2026 exclusively for PlayStation 5, though no specific launch date has been confirmed yet.
