{"id":1932915,"date":"2026-05-13T11:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1932915"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:44:09","slug":"saros-is-off-to-a-slower-start-than-returnal-with-some-analysts-concerned-housemarque-will-struggle-to-break-even","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1932915","title":{"rendered":"Saros is off to a slower start than Returnal, with some analysts concerned Housemarque &#8220;will struggle to break even&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/saros\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Saros<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Saros is off to a slower start than Returnal, with some analysts concerned Housemarque &#8220;will struggle to break even&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">The suns don&#8217;t add up.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Saros---Cinematic-Announce-Trailer-_-PS5-Games-1-26-screenshot.png?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Saros trailer screenshot showing man in sci-fi suit aiming a gun on alien planet\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Saros---Cinematic-Announce-Trailer-_-PS5-Games-1-26-screenshot.png\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Housemarque<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-13T11:44:09+00:00\">May 13, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"c7b4d6e4-8821-481f-b074-a1e7010d864a\" data-name=\"Saros\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Saros\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Saros\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Saros\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Saros\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Saros\" title=\"Follow Saros\"><br \/>\n  Follow Saros<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/nine-things-to-know-before-playing-saros\">Saros<\/a>&#8216; reviews are on the generally favourable side &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saros-review\">Eurogamer awarded Saros four stars<\/a> &#8211; and a smoother difficulty curve has made it more approachable than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/returnal-review-magnificent-and-monstrous\">Returnal<\/a>, yet its launch hasn&#8217;t been quite as successful as Housemarque&#8217;s previous game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alineaanalytics.substack.com\/p\/saros-sells-300k-in-its-first-two\">Alinea Analytics&#8217; head of market analysis Rhys Elliott shared an in-depth look at Saros&#8217; launch<\/a>, highlighting that the game has already sold 300K copies and generated more than $22m in revenue. A third of those sales are from the 48-hour early access period for deluxe edition owners, meaning Housemarque&#8217;s figures could be front-loaded; Elliott theorised the &#8220;superfans&#8221; could be boosting its debut performance.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"primis_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"primis_video\">\n<p><span class=\"embed_placeholder\" data-type=\"targeting\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"message\">To see this content please enable targeting cookies.<\/span><br \/>\n<button class=\"optanon-show-settings link\"><br \/>\nManage cookie settings<\/button><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>Saros &#8211; Official Launch Trailer<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DqU9n-OaSwg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though specific numbers for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/returnal\">Returnal<\/a> during its launch period weren&#8217;t shared, Elliott stated that Saros is selling &#8220;a little slower&#8221; than Housemarque&#8217;s previous game, despite selling to a larger PlayStation 5 installed base. There are approximately 93m with a PS5 now whereas when Returnal launched in 2021, the installed base was approximately 8m. &#8220;Those early PS5 adopters (the ones who inherently buy a lot of new games at full price) were dying for something to play,&#8221; Elliott suggested.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Elliott&#8217;s data points to other recent successful PS5 launches, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-review\">Crimson Desert<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/resident-evil-requiem-review\">Resident Evil Requiem<\/a>, as having stolen some of Saros&#8217; thunder, and Elliott also remarked that the game is &#8220;competing with the whole cumulative backlog of PlayStation releases&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The upside, however, is that Housemarque&#8217;s work on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saros-made-easier-than-returnal-creative-director-claims-still-a-very-challenging-game\">removing friction from the game&#8217;s cyclical loop<\/a> has had a tangible effect on player engagement. Saros has double the completion rate (20 percent) of Returnal, apparently, and gained a consistently high number of daily players. &#8220;Saros launched with around 43K daily players on its early-access day (29th April), then jumped to 83K on its full-launch day (30th April), and peaked at almost 142K on 2nd May,&#8221; Eliott noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This slow start suggests it will struggle to break even, given the reported $76m development budget,&#8221; the analysis concluded. Of course, Returnal&#8217;s long-term performance on PC (Steam) suggests a potential solution to Saros&#8217; performance, should Sony choose to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-is-reportedly-ditching-its-pc-release-strategy-and-most-first-party-games-will-now-be-console-exclusive\">roll back its decision to return to making console exclusives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/nine-things-to-know-before-playing-saros\">Saros<\/a>&#8216; reviews are on the generally favourable side &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saros-review\">Eurogamer awarded Saros four stars<\/a> &#8211; and a smoother difficulty curve has made it more approachable than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/returnal-review-magnificent-and-monstrous\">Returnal<\/a>, yet its launch hasn&#8217;t been quite as successful as Housemarque&#8217;s previous game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alineaanalytics.substack.com\/p\/saros-sells-300k-in-its-first-two\">Alinea Analytics&#8217; head of market analysis Rhys Elliott shared an in-depth look at Saros&#8217; launch<\/a>, highlighting that the game has already sold 300K copies and generated more than $22m in revenue. A third of those sales are from the 48-hour early access period for deluxe edition owners, meaning Housemarque&#8217;s figures could be front-loaded; Elliott theorised the &#8220;superfans&#8221; could be boosting its debut performance.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"primis_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"primis_video\">\n<p><span class=\"embed_placeholder\" data-type=\"targeting\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"message\">To see this content please enable targeting cookies.<\/span><br \/>\n<button class=\"optanon-show-settings link\"><br \/>\nManage cookie settings<\/button><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>Saros &#8211; Official Launch Trailer<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DqU9n-OaSwg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though specific numbers for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/returnal\">Returnal<\/a> during its launch period weren&#8217;t shared, Elliott stated that Saros is selling &#8220;a little slower&#8221; than Housemarque&#8217;s previous game, despite selling to a larger PlayStation 5 installed base. There are approximately 93m with a PS5 now whereas when Returnal launched in 2021, the installed base was approximately 8m. &#8220;Those early PS5 adopters (the ones who inherently buy a lot of new games at full price) were dying for something to play,&#8221; Elliott suggested.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Elliott&#8217;s data points to other recent successful PS5 launches, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-review\">Crimson Desert<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/resident-evil-requiem-review\">Resident Evil Requiem<\/a>, as having stolen some of Saros&#8217; thunder, and Elliott also remarked that the game is &#8220;competing with the whole cumulative backlog of PlayStation releases&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The upside, however, is that Housemarque&#8217;s work on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/saros-made-easier-than-returnal-creative-director-claims-still-a-very-challenging-game\">removing friction from the game&#8217;s cyclical loop<\/a> has had a tangible effect on player engagement. Saros has double the completion rate (20 percent) of Returnal, apparently, and gained a consistently high number of daily players. &#8220;Saros launched with around 43K daily players on its early-access day (29th April), then jumped to 83K on its full-launch day (30th April), and peaked at almost 142K on 2nd May,&#8221; Eliott noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This slow start suggests it will struggle to break even, given the reported $76m development budget,&#8221; the analysis concluded. Of course, Returnal&#8217;s long-term performance on PC (Steam) suggests a potential solution to Saros&#8217; performance, should Sony choose to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-is-reportedly-ditching-its-pc-release-strategy-and-most-first-party-games-will-now-be-console-exclusive\">roll back its decision to return to making console exclusives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Saros Saros is off to a slower start than Returnal, with some analysts concerned Housemarque &#8220;will struggle to break even&#8221; The suns don&#8217;t add up. Image credit: Housemarque News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on May 13, 2026 Follow Saros Saros&#8216; reviews are on the generally favourable side &#8211; Eurogamer awarded Saros four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1932915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1932915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1932915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1932915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1932915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}