In one of the shortest betas of all time, Housemarque's third-person battle royale shooter Stormdivers is playable for the next 17 hours if you sign up here.
The beta, which you'll play on Steam, launched two hours before I published this post and lasts until 8am GMT/3am EST/12am PST on Sunday. It features the game's duos mode in which you'll boost your ally when you're near them, so grab a friend if you can.
Housemarque director Harry Krueger talks Nex Machina, what we can expect from the studio's AAA title, whether Arcade truly is dead, and more.
If I were a betting man, and I am, I would say that Stormdivers won't be successful. There's too much competition, from the mammoths like Fortnite, Apex and PUBG, to further competition from AAA games with a battle royale mode like CoD.
There's too much competition and unless Stormdivers brings something unique to the mode, it just isn't going to work. "Simple yet deep" already exists.
Yeah, they came to the battle royale genre too late to make an impact. I'm not sure what they can do with the game -- you don't want to release the game if you're just going to have to shut it down immediately.
They have even admitted it already. No turning back from the stupid move of turning into a generic studio.
Great devs, one of favs, but I have to say they've been alittle off point with there last 2 entry's.
Think they need to go bk to basics imo.
Nex Machina was the best game they have ever made and Matterfall was excellent, but lacked content.
I think Stormdivers has been put on hold or canceled at this stage.
They have 70 people in their studio currently working on a AAA new IP.
Sony is working with them on their next project, so that's probably it. Sony also knows it can't compete with third-party multiplayer / battle royale games which are on its consoles anyway so it doesn't bother. I reckon Housemarque's new game is going to be something different.
Storm Divers isn't their AAA game tho. They've got two projects going, StormDivers and the unannounced assumed to be PS5 Exclusive AAA title
Finally a beautiful article/interview. This was a really great read since I miss the Housemarque arcade games but this interview made me respect their decision a little more. Either way I will continue to support this dev team through thick and thin.
Yeah, it's unfortunate they're leaving the arcade stuff behind, but you can't blame them.
A battle royale side scroller like Resogun would be pretty cool. Don't think we need more shooter .
Love Housemarque, but I don't like they're chasing the current fad. It's going to be a hard market to break into without serious marketing backing.
I still want a 3D version of Dead Nation. Love the game and the overhead gameplay but wish there was a camera option to make it more straight ahead or closer. The initial videos made the game look closer than it actually was.
We need more Dead Nation.
Yeah I absolutely loved Dead Nation, and to be fair I didn't mind the camera angles at all. Just Dead Nation 2 is all I need.
During Reboot Develop 2019, Wccftech spoke with both Ilari and Mikael about the future of Housemarque and the state of the games industry at large.
Ed writes: Housemarque, the developers of a number of critically beloved arcade shooters including Nex Machina and Resogun, recently admitted their upcoming Battle Royale game Stormdivers is unlikely to succeed. The reason? We're at peak BR.
Looking forward to the braindead BR to take a back seat to whatever is next.
Looking forward to the brain dead team deathmatch to take a back seat to whatever is next.
I'll never understand the hate for a new game type that got popular.
Senor what makes you play them? Lmfao. You literally do NOT have to play them. Their are plenty of other games being made. Quit bitching because you’re trash at it and your friends like it.
And some companies shout that the future relies on online multiplayer games. The market in each genre is taken by one or two companies at most. The rest fail miserably.
I'm a person who has very loudely shouted out against online MP GaaS games ruining the industry but in this case that's not the issue. Most if not all of Housemarque's game are SP old school arcade games unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's a market for them anymore.
Good, does this mean everyone will shut up about BR then? (rhetorical)
Please just let BR die.
Damn it this will probably mean the studio will have to shut down which sucks, I've bought all their games in PS4 and they are ALL great, shame they never got the attention and sales they deserved.
