Earlier this year, Housemarque, known for many popular PS4 titles like Resogun and Alienation, released two new arcade-inspired titles on Nex Machina and Matterfall. DualShockers loved Nex Machina, as did most critics. While we were a bit harsher towards Matterfall, we still recognized that Housemarque brought a certain flair to their arcade inspired games.
Unfortunately, the company has revealed that they will no longer be developing games within the arcade genre anymore due to the lackluster sales of Nex Machina and Matterfall. This news was disclosed through an open letter to their fans this morning, where they delve more into the lackluster sales of their previous titles and thank the fans who supported the studio’s previous endeavors:
“Despite critical success and numerous awards, our games just haven’t sold in significant numbers. While some of them have reached a massive audience due to free game offerings across various digital sales channels, this unfortunately doesn’t help pay for development, which gets costly for high production quality. We are extremely grateful to our fans and partners, who have enabled us to work on awesome games like Super Stardust HD and Outland. For your unfailing love and support we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. But now it’s time to move on to new genres.”
Unfortunately, this means Housemarque will no longer be developing games in that genre as they directly stated: “it is time to bring our longstanding commitment to the arcade genre to an end.” The studio sees that industry is moving towards “multiplayer experiences with strong, robust communities,” so Housmarque plans on doing the same.
That being said, Housemarque has stated that the arcade game genre will still hold a special place in the studio’s heart, even if they aren’t making games like Nex Machina and Matterfall anymore, and will maintain their current purpose as a company:
“Our purpose as a company remains the same, however – to create enjoyable and memorable gaming experiences for players while simultaneously creating a great workplace that allows people to flourish both professionally and personally.”
Housemarque claims that its next projects are “totally different” than what people have seen from the studio before, but will still focus on “gameplay first with first class execution.”
DualShockers will be sure to let you know when Housemarque reveals what its next projects are. For those interested in picking up the studios recent titles, Matterfall is available exclusively on PS4, while Nex Machina is available on both PC and PS4.