Ilari Kuittinen
Housemarque
Ilari Kuittinen is the co-founder and Studio Head of the award-winning game studio Housemarque. Ilari started his career in 1993, when he co-founded one of the first game studios in Finland, before co-founding Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen two years later. After 26 years of full-time entrepreneurship and running an independent game studio, Housemarque joined PlayStation Studios family in 2021.
The studio’s most recent game “Returnal” released in 2021 on PlayStation 5 was a critically acclaimed title with a metacritic score of 86. The game also won several prestigious game awards such as Best Action Game at The Game Awards and many game of the year awards including Bafta Best Game Award and Develop:Stars Game of the Year.
The company is currently focusing on developing the next game “Saros” under the PlayStation Studios umbrella and has grown to a 120 people strong. Our purpose is to create unique game experiences, and our system goal is to create a product-focused learning organization that is optimized for adaptiveness, learning, and customer value.
Ilari Kuittinen is speaking at the following session/s
30 years of Change - Now and Then
Housemarque was one of the companies taking advantage of the beginning of the rise of PC gaming and started developing games in 1995. This talk is discussing how different the times are now compared to three decades ago from a small game studio perspective. Comparing the times when the company was started to now being one of the PlayStation Studios gives a unique perspective on how the games industry has changed over the years.
The talk is for everyone interested in game studio development.
Session Takeaway
- How game studio growth impacts strategy, culture, and opportunities over time
- Key lessons from Housemarque's evolution from indie beginnings to AAA development
- Practical insights on balancing product development with company growth and sustainability
Session speakers
