Sony has acquired Nixxes Software, the second studio to be officially added to the PlayStation Studios family in three days. The studio will add their “high quality in-house technical and development capabilities” to the skill set of Sony’s collection of developers, most likely to aid with the development of PC ports of their in-house titles.
Nixxes is a studio that specializes in PC ports as well as video game design and development on games that were “in trouble”. They’ve worked extensively with Square Enix in the past, but have also had a hand in a number of other projects. They ported Shadow of the Tomb Raider to PC, Rise of the Tomb Raider to Xbox One X, Tomb Raider to PC and PS3, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to PC. Their most recent and largest project was Marvel’s Avengers for which their exact role isn’t clear. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume Sony has acquired the studio to work on PC ports of their PlayStation Studios games, maybe even the rumored Ghost of Tsushima PC version. Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst said:
I highly respect Nixxes and am excited for this very experienced team to become part of the world-class development community at SIE. They have a passion for improving games and for delivering the best possible experience for gamers. Nixxes will be a strong asset for everyone across PlayStation Studios, helping our teams focus on their most important goal, which is to create unique PlayStation content at the best possible quality.
The acquisition is the second official acquisition by Sony in just three days, following on from the addition of Housemarque to PlayStation Studios. If a slip up by PlayStation Japan is anything to go by, it will soon be followed by a third studio. Bluepoint Games was accidentally revealed as an acquisition on the same day as Housemarque, but Sony is yet to officially announce this one.
Despite the flurry of new studios, Hulst has denied Sony is in an “arms race” with other companies to develop a strong studio portfolio. He also said all of their new studios are “very, very targeted acquisitions of teams that we know well” and “it’s not like we’re going around and just making random acquisitions”. Nixxes fits the bill here as Sony starts to extend the life of its exclusive titles with later PC ports. Bluepoint Games would also fit this description very well but we’ll have to wait and see if anyone else is brought into the fold in the meantime.
[Source: Nixxes]
