Sony acquires PC porting specialists Nixxes Software

Sony has announced another development studio acquisition, adding Dutch game porting specialists Nixxes to PlayStation Studios.

Nixxes are best known for their work as a porting house, most commonly working with Square Enix on the PC versions of their European games. Most recently this has included excellent PC native versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its sequel, the rebooted Tomb Raider series, and Marvel’s Avengers.

It seems that Sony has acquire Nixxes for that technological knowhow. In the press release, Sony Interactive Entertainment said that “Nixxes will join PlayStation Studios Technology, Creative & Services Group to provide high quality in-house technical and development capabilities for PlayStation Studios.”

Given Nixxes’ track record, this would make a lot of sense if Sony are focussed on bringing more PlayStation games to PC, as they are expected to do following the release of Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone, and rumours that Uncharted 4 is next.

Nixxes could help bring more PlayStation games (like Uncharted 4) to PC.

Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios 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.”

“We can’t wait to get to work and are so excited to bring our technical and development expertise to an IP powerhouse like PlayStation Studios,” said Jurjen Katsman, Founder & Sr. Director, Development, Nixxes. “We’re looking forward to working with some of the most talented teams in the industry to deliver the highest-quality gameplay experiences for PlayStation fans.”

The timing of all of this is also curious, as Sony is seemingly reacting to the aggressive acquisitions made by Microsoft over the last few years. The Nixxes acquisition comes just a few days after Housemarque joined PlayStation Studios, and Sony Japan’s twitter account posted an image suggesting that Demon’s Souls PS5 developer Bluepoint will also become a first party studio. Not to mention that Sony snapped up Insomniac Games in late 2019.

Source: Businesswire