Resogun and Nex Machina developer Housemarque has put its multiplayer shooter Stormdivers on hold to deliver an ambitious new project that “will define the next evolution” of the studio.
The unexpected announcement was buried in a recent post from studio CEO Ilari Kuittinen celebrating 25 years since Housemarque was founded.
By way of explaining the development freeze, Kuittinen wrote “we are focused on delivering our most ambitious and biggest game to date, putting every other project on hold, including the development of Stormdivers.”
Details about that new project remain under wraps for the time being, though the team has been working on it for almost three years, with the studio’s entire staff of almost 80 developers currently contributing to it. So far, the only available hint is that it will not be an arcade-styled game, like the rest of the team’s oeuvre.
However, Housemarque has already signed a publishing partner and expects “to reveal more in the coming months.”
Stormdivers was announced in early 2018, and would have had players battling both each other and environmental storms in a third-person setting. It was planned for a 2020 release, though whether the team will return to it after the new project is released is uncertain at present.