Nixxes Software gets acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment

Ok, Sony Interactive Entertainment just announced another studio acquisition which Nixxes Software (They previously ported some of Square Enix's Western distributed console games to PC such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Tomb Raider 2013 Reboot, etc).

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,” Hulst said in a news release. “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.”

Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Nixxes Software - Gematsu

Sony PlayStation acquires Nixxes Software, developer of PC ports - Polygon

So what's their future going to be?

This is . . . fine, I guess? The industry is just in a consolidation phase at the moment with the new console cycle starting up. Give it a few years and the pendulum will swing back the other way as some principals from acquired studios split off to do their own thing again.

I find it more interesting that Sony has gone on a mini-acquisition spree at the time time they've been not-so-subtly dragging Microsoft for doing the exact same thing. I probably wouldn't think much of it, except that they've been kind of snooty about it. Like, it's all well and fine to say you think Microsoft's business strategy isn't for you, but calling their acquisitions "random" is kind of an unnecessary dig at the studios that got bought. In a way, it's Sony kind of saying those places weren't "real" studios worthy of Sony's attention.

Not a great look, to be honest. I'm fine with Sony wanting to focus on "prestige" titles, as it were. But I can do without the champagne-swilling Sundance Film Festival kind of attitude towards everything else.

I would guess that the buggy PC release of Horizon Zero Dawn gave Sony a wake-up call. They needed proper in house help for future releases. And the technical talent at Nixxes is definitely very valuable in its own right. Furthermore, Guerrilla Games is based in Amsterdam, and Nixxes is close by in Utrecht.

Seems like a smart move on Sony's part. I'm honestly more surprised that Square Enix never acquired them, since they have always had such a close working relationship.

Meh. To me it kinda seems like if my local garage got a new guy that tightens the lug nuts on a tire. A port house to make Playstation games run on PC about 2-4 years after they would be all that relevant.

Quite saddened by this honestly, as they've been a stalwart studio for putting out good PC ports. I can't imagine Sony will have them working on PC versions, unless they seriously pivot. I mean, I'd love it if they were Sony's in-house PC porting team but I very much doubt that'll happen.

@gbrading: Who's to know for sure, but I would imagine the success of Demon's Souls means Bluepoint wants to make more games and move away from remasters. Nixxes is just a small studio of PC port specialists (55 employees on LinkedIn) so this deepens the bench for Sony's PC port efforts which have sold well. Having a dedicated PC port team to work on the Sany back catalog makes some sense.

As a PC user, very sad to be losing one of its best port houses.

Can't say I'm too familiar with Nixxes. I played Deus Ex on PC so thats probably where I remember the logo from. Kind of a weird choice for Sony, a company that is very much against opening up their walled garden, to acquire a PC port house. One can only hope this is a sign of them wanting to bring more Playstation exclusives to the PC in the future, but who knows for sure. Hopefully this doesn't change into one of those acquisitions where Nixxes will be relegated to back end work on existing PS titles, making multiplayer maps or something of that ilk.

@humanity: I think Playstation has tested the waters with Helldivers, Horizon & Days Gone appearing on PC. It turned out that the PS audience didn't seem too upset about their exclusives leaving the Playstation ecosystem a fair amount of time after their respective Playstation versions hit the shelves. So now it makes a lot of sense for PS to have two studio's that are specialized in porting games at the ready (Bluepoint as well) that can bring these big expensive Playstation games to a larger crowd once their core audience has played it on the Playstation first.

Jeff Grubb also mentioned two other aspects on his show. Now they own these porthouses, they don't have to be afraid that a big game from Square-Enix or FromSoftware is blocking the pipeline for a Sony PC-port at one of these studio's. These companies have a lot of money on their hands right now, because everyone and their mom have put money towards gaming in the pandemic and interest rates are very low, so they rather spend it now on assets that have value to them.

Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I hope there will be another studio similar to Nixxes Software so they can port the future Square Enix's Western games from console to PC.

@onemanarmyy: Do you really think their biggest concern was how upset the audience would be when they release their exclusives on PC like a year later? I somehow get the feeling that Sony quite frankly doesn't care what their customers like or don't like because they have such a fan following. I think their stranglehold on exclusives stems from the knowledge that games really do make a console. Microsoft is killing it right now with services etc, but they lack meaningful exclusives. Now this will change in the coming years as this Bethesda shoe begins to drop but that will still take a while.

I do agree that a porthouse is good for taking the heat of the primary devs. Although there was nothing stopping them from simply contracting these porthouses out in the past like Bluepoint for Demons. Now that they are inhouse the communication technically should be smoother but all these stories coming out about Sony makes it seem like they are difficult to work with in many ways. Hopefully being part of "the family" means you don't have to wait 3 months to get a reply to your mail.

@humanity: Do you really think their biggest concern was how upset the audience would be when they release their exclusives on PC like a year later?

I don't think they base their business decisions on the emotions of PlaystationBob and JohnBandicoot on Twitter and were scared that they would create angry memes about this on twitter. But i definitly do think that the general shrug towards the PC port of Helldivers in 2015 and Horizon PC in 2020 has shown them that there's not much risk of a significant amount of Playstation users deciding to jump ship to the PC now that their exclusive games are not as exclusive as they have been in previous generations. That's one factor that they take in consideration.

As for the contract vs purchase option for the porthouses, It sounds like these porthouses are pretty much always quite busy porting something for someone. As a Sony studio, they don't have to wait in line for other games to be finished. They can get a better understanding of what their schedule is like and at what rate they can release PC ports. And it's just a good investment to make now that their cash-reserves are high and interest is low. It might be cheaper in the long run to just buy the studio now and be able to release 10 ports in the next 10 years, instead of having to bring these guys in on contract whenever they have a gap open to do a playstation game.

The recent stories about Sony's communication comes from small time indie devs that have to deal with a sony manager that they got assigned for reasons unknown. That communication is pretty terrible on Sony's part because these contacts hardly matter to Sony's bottom line. By buying these porthouses, they make a statement that the PC-market is important for Sony. Their communication with Bluepoint and Nixxes will therefore be of a much higher priority and quality than those indie devs get access to.

@cikame: Don't think we lost them. They just would not work on so-called third party releases anymore. The sad part for me is that they are going into the Naughty Dog factory porting their expensive looking but not playing well game...

@onemanarmyy: We can only hope. Intent and delivery being two very disparate things in the case of Sony especially they seem to be riding a market leader high that doesn’t always translate to the best decision when the consumer comes to mind or even their own internal studios. The recent grumbling from indie devs are one thing, but earlier this year all the talk from the Days Gone devs and the Visual Arts Service Group show that even internal studios have a hard time seeing eye to eye with platform leads.

As for the exclusives Helldivers was a relatively small game by Sony standards that came and went very quickly which would never warrant any outcries from the fans. Similarly it’s hard to point to Horizon as a risky move for Sony to test if people would flock to PC away from their platform when it was released 3 years after the game launched on PS4. A true test will be to see if they ever launch a PlayStation exclusive simultaneously on PC and console, which I doubt will happen any time soon.

A true test will be to see if they ever launch a PlayStation exclusive simultaneously on PC and console, which I doubt will happen any time soon.

yeah i doubt that too. The goal is to be able to sell their games to a wider audience. Not to attempt to deliver parity on consoles and PC. That would definitly piss off their playstation users and weaken their strategy of providing AAA quality exclusives to their core audience. If they can open up the walled garden a bit without the playstation users feeling cheated and hesitatant to invest in the platform, that's an ideal situation for them. Luckily it seems like once a game has left the 'it's shiny and new' period, players don't really care that more people get to play an old Horizon or Days Gone game.

One thing that some people don't realize, because they can't get past the headline.. Hermen Hulst said on Twitter that Nixxes helped Guerrilla ship Killzone Shadowfall in time for PS4 launch. There's a prior working relationship there, and could indicate that Nixxes will do more than just "PC ports". They could be a valuable support studio, helping Sony's games come out faster on PS5. Hermen's statement says "they have a passion for improving games" which makes me think they won't be focused on just porting.