The last time we heard from Housemarque around these parts, the veteran Finnish development house was having some trouble marketing their excellent arcade games. Fast forward a few months, and they’ve just revealed a new third person battle royale experience titled Stormdivers. While I’m sure that a number of people will be disappointed with this announcement (the studio has been teasing Stormdivers for a while, but they’d never shared enough information to confirm fans’ suspicions that it would be a battle royale game), I’m actually quite pumped, as Housemarque has proven that they have an unique touch when it comes to fast paced action.
According to the press release, Stormdivers is a sci-fi third person battle royale set in an abandoned island ravaged by a nano-experiment gone horribly wrong. Artificial storm systems rage through the landscape, wrecking everything in their path and creating new opportunities for players. Of course, this wouldn’t be a Housemarque game without having fast paced action, so we know that’s definitely a big selling point. Further setting it apart from the battle royale pack, Stormdivers will rely on a class system, and the developers plan to release new content updates after launch, expanding the experience with new playable areas, classes and modes (including a cooperative PvE scenario).
With Stormdivers we are entering new grounds as a studio that for over 20 years has been known for creating arcade coin-op inspired games. We began its development when battle royale was still a niche gameplay mode, yet despite the number of BR games on the market now, Stormdivers will excite players with its fast-paced gameplay, metagame, classes and various events, all packaged with Housemarque’s trademark high-quality visual effects. Stormdivers is more than just another battle royale game, and we plan to roll out new content regularly in the future to continuously expand the experience. We invite everyone to check out the trailer to see what we have in store!
Ilari Kuittinen, CEO of Housemarque.
Stormdivers is scheduled for a 2019 release.
