Housemarque, the developer of new PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal, has thanked Sony for taking a risk on its game.
As you will read in our five-star review, it's a different kind of exclusive - veering away from trademark big-budget action-adventures like Uncharted and The Last of Us, and offering something more niche, complex and perhaps polarising instead.
It has prompted CEO and co-founder Ilari Kuittinen to post a public letter thanking its "publishing partner" for sticking by it throughout the development process: "In the age when game publishers are taking less and less creative risks, we are truly thankful to our publishing partner Sony, who has given us an opportunity to work on something very risky and has given fantastic support during the whole project," he wrote.
"We are forever grateful for having this opportunity."
We sincerely hope its sales success matches its critical one, as that will then be the final proof SIE needs to enable it to take similar risks on other smaller studios and different game styles.
That's not to say we would like to see the end of the blockbuster titles of yesteryear (can we have Days Gone 2 please?) but we'd like there to be a better balance of the big and the bold.
After all, the PlayStation 5 itself is unconventional. All we need are the new creative ideas to go along with it.
Returnal will be available for PS5 from tomorrow, Friday 30 April 2021. You can also watch a State of Play stream featuring new gameplay of fellow PS5 exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift in Time later today. See here for details.