Thanks to the critical success of Returnal and then Saros, Housemarque has become a highly regarded studio in the video game industry. The Finnish company is now known for its roguelike experiences that are challenging in terms of gameplay and visually stunning.

In an interview with The Game Business, Mikael Haveri, the studio’s brand director, discussed his teams’ ambitions. We also learned that Housemarque has tripled its workforce over the past nine years, growing from 40 to 120 employees during that time.

During the interview, Haveri explained that Housemarque aims to follow in FromSoftware’s footsteps by creating niche games capable of breaking through to reach a wider audience.

"FromSoftware have been doing a similar genre for a very long time and built up their fan base [over that period]. We have two unique games out. Returnal, Saros.

FromSoftware’s journey from King’s Field to what they are today… We’re not presuming that we would be anywhere close to that. But [like them] we will keep our core, keep educating the market that these are the coolest game you can play. That’s our goal.. We’ll get there step by step."