Housemarque co-founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen has announced that he has left the company. In a social media post, Kuittinen spoke about having worked in the industry for 33 years and having spent 31 years at Housemarque alongside fellow co-founder Harri Tikkanen, and thanked the industry and fans for their support.
“Starting out in 1993 with Terramarque, and then joining forces with Harri to establish Housemarque in 1995, we had a passion for games but no real blueprint for building a business. Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate. We had the luck of being in the right place at the right time during three decades of incredible industry growth, allowing us to stay fiercely independent for 26 years before finding a home within the PlayStation Studios family.”
Kuittinen also spoke about some of the major things he, and by extension the studio, had accomplished during his tenure. This includes boosting Finnish game development at a global stage, creating a variety of titles that would form the identity of Housemarque, achieving AAA success with Returnal and Saros, and evolving into a AAA developer while maintaining “our unique creative identity.”
“Beyond the walls of Housemarque and PlayStation, this journey would have been impossible without the broader games community. To the many friends, fellow founders, mentors, and industry peers across the world who have offered invaluable advice, a listening ear, or steady support over the last three decades: thank you.”
“This industry is defined not just by the games we create, but by the remarkable, generous people who make up its global community.”
As for what’s next for Housemarque, Kuittinen said that the studio had been working behind the scenes to ensure a smooth leadership transition. This led to Sami Hakala taking over the managing director role as of July 1st, and he will lead the studio’s strategy and creative vision going forward. Kuittinen himself is taking a break from any sort of work from September onwards. He does, however, plan to return to the industry at some point.
“You certainly haven’t seen the last of me. I look forward to staying connected with the industry, attending trade shows, cheering from the crowd at award shows, and down the road, doing some mentoring or consulting.”
The last title to be released under Kuittinen’s stewardship is Saros, which came to PS5 back in April. Following this release, the studio has continued supporting the roguelite shooter, while also starting work on its next project. However, details about the next game haven’t yet been revealed, aside from Kuittinen noting that it might not be of the same scale as Saros. He also acknowledged that there was still plenty of work left to be done on its latest release.
“This is just the start of the discussion and conversation with the gaming community. If you have played Saros, you know that there are a lot of things that we can do and tweak and add. We hope that we can keep on doing that for a while.”
For more details about Saros, take a look at our review. Also check out its 2.5-hour demo for PS Plus subscribers.
