Developer Housemarque has revealed that its next game, Saros, wouldn’t have been possible to develop if the studio were still independent. In a conversation with Finnish publication Helsingin Sanomat, studio CEO Ilari Kuittinen spoke about the development of Saros, and the company’s acquisition by Sony.
As caught by WCCFTech, Kuittinen spoke about having to work with some of the more bureaucratic aspects of Housemarque’s life since the Sony acquisition, like having to follow the new HR guidelines under Sony. Kuittinen also revealed that the acquisition has allowed the studio’s budget for Saros to be much higher.
According to Kuittinen, the budget for the development of Saros is close to what Remedy revealed was the budget for its blockbuster horror title Alan Wake 2. Development on Saros started all the way back in 2022.
For some context, Remedy revealed back in February that Alan Wake 2‘s performance as of December 31, 2024 meant that the game had recouped its development and marketing costs. Going forward, sales of Alan Wake 2 will instead contribute to Remedy’s revenue stream. All in all, more than 2 million copies of Alan Wake 2 had been sold as of the end of 2024.
What this means for the budget for Saros when compared to Housemarque’s previous major release, Returnal, is unknown. This would indicate that Saros will end up being the biggest, most expensive project that Housemarque has worked on so far.
The studio unveiled Saros back in February. The game is slated to be a sci-fi roguelike third-person shooter, much like Returnal was. However, whether these similarities continue in other aspects aside from broad genre classifications is currently unknown.
In Saros, players take on the role of Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli) – a Soltari Enforcer. Players will explore the off-world colony of Carcossa where terrible things are seemingly happening. Things get weirder with the presence of an strange eclipse in the sky.
While not too many details about Saros have been revealed so far, creative director Gregory Louden has stated that there will be some form of meta progression thanks to resources players can discover that will carry over between runs. This will be quite different from Returnal, which didn’t have any form of meta progression aside from some currency that could be used to start a run with a better weapon.
As part of the progression, players will be able to permanently upgrade their loadout, and will have access to an “evolving set of weapons and suit upgrades.” All of this will be coupled with randomly-generated levels.
Louden has also stated that Saros will feature an ensemble cast of characters that players can interact with. This indicates that the main storytelling methods in Saros might also be quite different from what we saw in Returnal.
Saros is being developed for PS5, and is slated for release in 2026. The game will also feature enhancements for the PS5 Pro. In case you’re curious about Housemarque’s last major outing, check out our review of Returnal‘s PC release. And while you’re at it, check out our PS5 review as well.