Housemarque Co-Founder Ilari Kuittinen Leaves After 31 Years — What Changes at the Returnal Studio

Ilari Kuittinen’s last day at Housemarque was August 31. That’s the headline, but it isn’t the part that actually matters for the studio: Housemarque isn’t sitting with an empty leadership seat. Sami “Haxu” Hakala already took over as managing director two months earlier, on July 1, and Kuittinen spent the stretch since then specifically helping hand things off rather than stepping away abruptly.

Why now, and why it isn’t sudden

In his farewell statement, Kuittinen put the tenure in exact terms: 33 years in the games industry, 31 of them at Housemarque, “the studio I co-founded with Harri Tikkanen.” He’s taking a break starting in September — his own description is closer to a well-earned pause than an exit from the industry. He’s said he expects to stay connected through trade shows and awards events, and to eventually move into mentoring or consulting. That’s a meaningfully different claim than retirement, and nothing in his statement or Housemarque’s framing describes this as permanent.

Kuittinen was also direct about the state he’s leaving the studio in, saying Housemarque’s “strategy and creative vision are in exceptional hands.” Former deputy managing director Sami Hakala is the one now holding that title, having moved into the managing director role on July 1 while Kuittinen stayed on through the end of August to support the handover and keep day-to-day operations steady.

Kuittinen described his own approach to the job in similarly specific terms: “My core purpose as a leader has always been simple: to facilitate an environment where extraordinary creators have the freedom” to do their best work. His closing message to the studio leaned on that same idea rather than anything more sentimental — “take care of each other, speak with courage, and keep pushing the boundaries” of what games can be.

From Terramarque to a PlayStation Studio

Kuittinen’s run in games predates Housemarque itself. He co-founded Terramarque in 1993, then co-founded Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen in 1995. The studio built its identity on arcade-style action — Super Stardust HD and Resogun are the titles most closely associated with that era — before growing into the larger, AAA-scale productions that culminated in Returnal, its 2021 breakthrough on PS5.

Housemarque stayed independent for 26 years before Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired it in June 2021, shortly after Returnal’s release, making it the 13th studio to join PlayStation Studios. Its most recent release, the sci-fi action game Saros, launched worldwide on PS5 in April 2026 — already out, not upcoming, and unaffected by this transition since it shipped months before Kuittinen’s departure.

What actually changes, and what doesn’t

The honest answer is: less than a “studio co-founder departs” headline might suggest. There’s no announced gap in leadership — Hakala has been running point since July. There’s no indication in Kuittinen’s statement, Housemarque’s messaging, or any of the current reporting of layoffs, cancelled projects, or a creative-direction shake-up. Saros already shipped, so its release wasn’t touched by any of this, and there’s nothing on record suggesting an unannounced future project has been disrupted either.

What’s changed is specifically who holds the managing director title, following a transition that was already underway and already handed off before Kuittinen’s final day arrived. Whether Housemarque’s direction shifts under Hakala over the longer term is something only future announcements can answer — there’s no evidence either way yet, which is a different claim than promising nothing will ever change. For now, the facts on the table are narrower and more settled than the departure of a 31-year co-founder might imply: a planned handover, a successor already in place, and a studio that goes into its next chapter with its most recent game already out the door.