Housemarque puts its battle royale game Stormdivers on hold

Super Stardust and Resogun developer Housemarque is putting its in-development battle royale game, Stormdivers, on hold as it focuses all of its efforts on an unannounced project. In a post on the Housemarque website, CEO Ilari Kuittinen calls that mystery game the developer’s “biggest and most ambitious title yet.”

Kuittinen said that game is being developed with a yet-to-be-announced partner and a team of about 80 people at Housemarque.

“[N]ow we are focused on delivering our most ambitious and biggest game to date, putting every other project on hold, including the development of Stormdivers,” Kuittinen said. “It is great that the whole company can come together to deliver this game, which will define the next evolution of Housemarque.”

“We’ve never delivered anything at this scale before,” Kuittinen added.

Somewhat ironically, it was Stormdivers that was presented as the next evolution of Housemarque after the Finnish developer shifted away from making arcade-style games like Resogun, Alienation, and Nex Machina. In 2017, Kuittinen said, “Arcade is dead,” explaining that sluggish sales of games like Nex Machina prompted the studio “to move forward” with a new mandate.

In 2018, Housemarque announced Stormdivers. The battle royale game, which had been in development since 2016, featured a futuristic setting and high-speed action, with an emphasis on verticality and environmental threats.