Playstation Studios Gets Another Big Shakeup as Studio Head Leaves

Published Aug 31, 2026, 2:28 PM EDT Housemarque co-founder follows similar departures from top-level Insomniac and Sucker Punch execs Image: Housemarque/Sony Interactive Entertainment Another higher-up at a PlayStation-owned studio is leaving. Ilari Kuittinen, the co-founder and managing director at Housemarque, posted on X that today is his last day. In the message, Kuittinen says this transition has been in the works for some time, with Sami “Haxu” Hakala stepping into the managing director role on July 1. Kuittinen said he's going to take a break after 33 years in the gaming industry and 31 years at Housemarque, but he plans to stay connected by attending trade shows, consulting, and more. In his goodbye message, he writes the following: Together, we’ve achieved things I couldn’t have imagined when we started: · Pioneering Finnish game development on the global stage. · Creating studio defining titles-from Supreme Snowboarding, Super Stardust HD, and Resogun, to our breakthrough AAA success with Returnal and our latest release, Saros. · Evolving into a premier AAA developer while maintaining our unique creative identity What games has Housemarque made? Housemarque is a Finnish studio originally known for high-tempo, arcade-style action games. It has been around for decades, but fully burst onto the fore with 1999’s Supreme Snowboarding, which sold over a million copies. In 2007, Sony published the studio’s Super Stardust HD, kicking off a partnership that continued with the twin-stick shooter Dead Nation, Resogun, and more. Housemarque’s games consistently received positive reviews, but in 2017, Kuittinen stated in an open letter that the “Arcade is dead." He said the studio would do something different going forward because its arcade-style games sold relatively poorly. In 2021, it released the acclaimed roguelike action game Returnal, which combined the studio’s high-speed action with a sprawling sci-fi narrative. Sony acquired Housemarqueand integrated it into PlayStation Studios shortly after the game came out exclusively on PS5. Earlier this year, Housemarque released Saros, and according to Alinea Analytics, the game got off to a "slow" start with only 300,000 units sold. However, the studio downplayed the situation in an interview with The Game Business, saying Returnal also had slow sales at launch. While it’s unclear if there’s any relationship between Saros’ allegedly low sales and Kuittinen’s departure, he’s not the only co-founder to leave PlayStation Studios as of late. Insomniac Games co-founder Ted Price stepped down in January 2025, and Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming did the same in December 2025. With PlayStation 5 sales flatlining due to price markups, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki recently said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Sony's current goal is to get existing players to spend more. Game sales are presumably a big part of that. Sony has faced massive backlash after announcing that it will end production of physical discs in 2028. Many are understandably afraid of what the move will mean for the future of game ownership, especially because Sony is in the midst of trying to prove in court that players don’t own the digital games they purchase.