Sony has tonight added a new member to the family. Although you may be surprised to learn the studio wasn’t already a part of the Sony portfolio.

Housemarque, the Finnish developer who recently released Returnal (which I adored and gave 9.5/10), is now a part of the PlayStation Studios family. Herman Hulst, head of World Studios, announced the news tonight in a PlayStation Blog post.

The majority of Housemarque’s games since the PS3 generation have been Sony exclusives, including Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation, Outland, Resogun, Matterfall and Returnal.

Ilari Kuittinen, Managing Director of Housemarque, said today is a big day for the studio, which has been over 26 years in the making. 

“We are so excited to finally join the PlayStation Studios family! This gives our studio a clear future and a stable opportunity to continue delivering on gameplay centric approaches, while still experimenting with new methods of narrative delivery and pushing the boundaries of this modern artform. Locally here in Helsinki, this also means that we will officially expand the PlayStation family to a growing industry hub and secure the legacy of the oldest game studio in Finland.”

Returnal was a significant risk, and it has paid off for Sony and Housemarque. It seems we’ll be getting more ideas like that in the future from the studio as Kuittinen continued to say, “with the backing of SIE and its family of studios supporting us, we can truly grow into our place in the industry and show what Housemarque can create with no limitations.”

This news makes heaps of sense to me and I’m excited to see what Housemarque can do officially under the PlayStation Studios banner. As a personal note: Sony announced this news about an hour after we finished recording our PlayStation podcast, Platinum Explosion. Thanks, Sony!

Are you excited that Housemarque has officially joined the PlayStation Studios family? Let me know in the comments section below.