Finnish indie studio Housemarque managed to carve for itself a niche: making some of the best top-down and/or side-scrolling games available on the market.
After Dead Nation, Housemarque kept releasing high-quality titles like Super Stardust Delta, Resogun and Alienation. The team is now working on PlayStation 4 exclusive Matterfall as well as Nex Machina, the first Housemarque game to also launch on PC in a long time.
Speaking with GamesIndustry, though, CEO Ilari Kuittinen hinted that the studio might create something different after those titles.
The next games that we are working on are not really that kind of game. It's going to be something different from us, after the games we're getting out now... In general terms, the problem might be that the bigger audience might be expecting something else than a top-down or side-scrolling game - let's put it that way.
Most of our games have been exclusive to various PlayStation platforms - not all of them, but most. But we can see the need to diversify, and I wonder if there is still breathing space for the games that we do.
While genre fans might be upset, I'd really love to see what Housemarque can do other than top-down and side-scrolling shooters.
Meanwhile, Nex Machina has been recently confirmed for a June 20th release date on PC (Steam) and PlayStation 4. In the game, developed in collaboration with Eugene Jarvis of Robotron 2048 and Smash TV fame, humans have become deeply dependent on technology, while around them, machines have reached consciousness and surpassed human intelligence ten-fold. The machines turn on their creators and make it their mission to eradicate human life.
Nex Machina features explosive classic arcade gameplay, while making full use of today’s technology to complement highly developed twin-stick play. Local co-op mode is also included.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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