Reinventing Housemarque - Year after #Arcadeisdead

What the talk is about

Ilari Kuittinen explains how the Finnish studio Housemarque, active for over 20 years, is reinventing itself after declaring that arcade is dead. The studio moved from PC games to consoles, mobile experiments and small downloadable titles. Despite strong reviews, Nex Machina did not earn back its investment, so the team is moving away from arcade-style games. It now aims at bigger projects for a wider audience, new genres, multiplayer and live games. About 50 people work on an announced AAA title, which demands new ways of managing production. He also covers culture: team self-management, letting people bring their whole selves to work, open-format discussions and an internal manual of values. Useful for studio leaders and anyone scaling a team or rethinking strategy.