“Arcade is dead,” Finnish studio Housemarque declared in the present day. They’re overstating just a little, after all, however they’re executed with the style themselves. Housemarque have been making ace arcade video games for over twenty years, from Super Stardust by means of to Nex Machina, however say they’re merely not making sufficient cash to justify making extra. So they gained’t. They’re not executed with video games completely, thoughts, and say we is perhaps stunned by what they make subsequent. Housemarque aren’t the one people making arcade video games, after all, but it surely’s a horrible disgrace to see even they struggled within the style.
Housemarque mentioned in today’s announcement that “despite critical success and numerous awards, our games just haven’t sold in significant numbers.” And whereas some have discovered giant audiences by being supplied ‘free’ by means of issues like PlayStation Plus subscriptions, “this unfortunately doesn’t help pay for development, which gets costly for high production quality.”
This got here to a head with the discharge of Nex Machina earlier this yr, which has achieved solely “lackluster sales.” And so, Housemarque say, this has “led us to the thinking that it is time to bring our longstanding commitment to the arcade genre to an end. While this genre will always hold a special place in our hearts, the industry is moving more toward multiplayer experiences with strong, robust communities, and it’s time for Housemarque to move forward with the industry. Hence Nex Machina and Matterfall will be the last of their kind coming out of our studio.”
So lengthy, Housemarque arcade video games! (Housemarqade video games?) They say that now they’re “exploring something totally different than what you might expect of us.” Intriguing! I’ll actually be eager to see no matter they do.
At least they’re leaving on a excessive notice. Matterfall solely got here out on PlayStation four however Nex was a corker. As Fraser Brown mentioned in his Nex Machina review:
“There will be more twin-stick shooters, probably excellent ones, but if time stopped and all we were left with was Nex Machina, then that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing. Housemarque and Eugene Jarvis have created something very special, and I suspect, enduring.”
If we uncover that Fraser has psychic powers of self-fulfilling prophecy, I’ll be proper narked.
