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Returnal developer Housemarque has said that content which didn’t end up in that game could well end up in a new IP.
In an interview with VGC, Eevi Korhonen, the senior narrative designer at Housemarque, spoke about the studio’s plans for the future. In the interview, she mentioned content that the team cut from the game:
“Returnal was so ambitious. We dreamt super big, but we still had to leave so much on the cutting room floor. All of these ideas and narrative systems. I’m super excited to pick up those pieces and see how those fit our new IP story.
“We didn’t quite have the handle on how big [Returnal] was going to be, building for a new platform on a new engine with a new team, all of those things require some learning. Now we have that team that has gone through the fire and learned how to build a game like Returnal. So now we get to start off stronger.”
It’s worth pointing out just how rare this is. And how nice it is to see a major studio, backed by an even more major publisher, opting for a fresh IP rather than a sequel. I loved Returnal very much, indeed (it was my game of the year), but I would always rather Housemarque be let loose to go with its inspirations.
Not that we won’t necessarily get a sequel at a some point. Elsewhere in the interview, Korhonen said:
“(laughing) I can’t comment on that too much. But I think the boys did slip sometime earlier this year that we are working on an original IP. Of course, if we return to Selene’s story after that, remains to be seen.”
