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[Kagoshima_Luke]

Nixxes is an amazing dev. They ported a number of games and did a great job every time. Pretty sure even Digital Foundry were writing glowing stuff about them. It was pretty much: if the port was done by Nixxes, it'll be great. If somebody else, watch out.

 

[NeoLed]

Who is Square Enix going to get to make their ports?

Sony Playstation. Make the relationship tighter

 

[mckmas8808]

So this is the internal dev that is going to take the workload of porting games to PC?
To see the day that PS becomes slowly but surely mostly a publisher, interesting.

Why do people keep saying this as if they aren't going to be helping other devs make PS5 only games? Herman Hulst also posted this today.

 

[Chiggs]

And-no-one-leaked-this.

Not even with a hint.

Because nobody cares/cared. It might very well be a solid pick up, but it’s not some razzle dazzle announcement.

 

[Stuart360]

Why do people keep saying this as if they aren't going to be helping other devs make PS5 only games? Herman Hulst also posted this today.

Sony have started bringing games to PC. Have already announced more PC games coming, buys a studio famous for their PC ports. But no they will be helping Sony's first party studios, come on now.
I mean i'm sure they will help when needed, but i'm also sure they were bought for Sony's PC strategy first.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Funny that we’re seeing the same arguments, just sides of the great console war, flipped.

 

[Chiggs]

Funny that we’re seeing the same arguments, just sides of the great console war, flipped.

The best part of this thread are the posters pretending this ISN'T about expanding Sony's PC presence.

 

[Darlingcognito]

Soooo organic. Gotta love those long relationships before selling up

 

[Unknown?]

Sony have started bringing games to PC. Have already announced more PC games coming, buys a studio famous for their PC ports. But no they will be helping Sony's first party studios, come on now.
I mean i'm sure they will help when needed, but i'm also sure they were bought for Sony's PC strategy first.

Nah that's wishful thinking.

 

[Stuart360]

Nah that's wishful thinking.

What is?, that they have been bought first for their PC porting experience?.

 

[01011001]

Nah that's wishful thinking.

that's looking at the evidence at hand. Sony states more PC ports coming, Sony buys studio known for porting games to PC...

that's like a guy going on record saying he wants to kill his wife with a shotgun, and then buys a shotgun 2 months later... would you not be concerned? lol would you tell the police "nah, he's not gonna do anything, you are interpreting too much unto this!"

 

[Unknown?]

What is?, that they have been bought first for their PC porting experience?.

That it was the sole focus. They bought them for that, I'm sure, but doubtful it's their only reason. Especially with their description, "In July 2021 Nixxes joined PlayStation Studios to focus on delivering the highest-quality gameplay experiences for PlayStation fans."

 

[Arifvara]

Hope herman buys every developer in the Netherlands .

 

[Shmunter]

Talent is talent.

Could also indicate proper PS5 focus with seperate sku ports to last gen/pc instead of aiming for the lowest common denominator with the projects.

 

[Unknown?]

Sony Interactive Entertainment Acquires Nixxes to Further Elevate PlayStation Studios Exclusive Titles

Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”) announced today that SIE has completed the acquisition of Nixxes Software B.V. (“Nixxes”), an industry-leading

www.businesswire.com

"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.”

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Soooo organic. Gotta love those long relationships before selling up

How is that not organic. Dating for years , then making it official. This is no arranged marriage. One night stand pregnancy. Sure Insomniac fucked around with EA, then with Microsoft, but it did not work out at all. They came back.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Have they even made anything? Goggle pulled up a Tomb Raider remake and an announced (but non-existent) Marvel project. Bit bizzarre to announce an aquisition without any kind of a pedigree.

This is clearly about Sony wanting to release more PC ports, man.

 

[ksdixon]

I don't like the PC ports idea. I still think it takes away reasons to get your console. didnt like it when XB did it, don't like that PS are doing it.

But there's one silver lining that comes to mind, someone tell me if I'm on track or not?

The original developers of games aren't going to be spending time porting to PC afterwards. They can go make a sequel, or the 2nd team each PS Studio seems to have these days, can tick-tock release a new IP.

Just leave the PC port work and possibly the definitive edition work (Death Stranding and now Ghosts of Tushima seem to be using "Director's Cut" branding) to Nixxes completely.

Leave the remake/remaster work to BluePoint, and just have PS teams banging out game after games?

 

[DynamiteCop!]

That list is bit incomplete.

They ported Rise of Tomb Raider to Xbox One and Xbox 360 at launch... a year late they ported it to PS4 and PSVR.

Rise of the Tomb Raider wasn't ported to Xbox One, it was natively developed for it. Nixxes did ports for the 360, PC and PS4.

 

[Elbow Identity Shallow]

Sony Interactive Entertainment Acquires Nixxes to Further Elevate PlayStation Studios Exclusive Titles

Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”) announced today that SIE has completed the acquisition of Nixxes Software B.V. (“Nixxes”), an industry-leading

www.businesswire.com

I'm one of the people who don't mind seeing PlayStation games on PC, simply because it makes perfect sense for them to continue doing what has been so succesful for them but I do feel that people who keep saying that this is purely about producing console games on PC are very much missing just how good this team is and the work they've done assisting studios in the past on the technical side, including Guerrila Games.
You only have to look at DF articles on any of Nixxes games or NX Gamer's videos to see how well respected they are in terms of technical understanding.
it very much sounds like they're going to be used something like the ICE Team in Naughty Dog who work across the first party studios as well as close third party studios who are bought in to be treated like first party studios in the way that Insomniac was with the original Spider-Man game. Taking third party studios on and treating them as an internal studio in many ways is just something that has worked well for PlayStation and Jim Ryan has said that this is an aim of his moving forwards as it's the best way to work with good third party studios like Insomniac and how they've also refered to studios like Housemarque and Bluepoint Games in the past. Also studios like Jade Raymond's Haven Entertainment Studios, Deviation Games and from Ember Labs who are makig Kena: Bridge of Spirits for them have been mentioned in teh same way.
If anybody cares it is actually worth reading the Busines Wire article linked above as it does show that they are suggesting that they will be a technical support group for their studios.

"Nixxes will join PlayStation Studios Technology, Creative & Services Group to provide high quality in-house technical and development capabilities for PlayStation Studios.

I highly respect Nixxes and am excited for this very experienced team to become part of the world-class development community at SIE,” said Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios. “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."

I know it doesn't really matter what's said and people will turn this into whatever they it to be, as is pretty standard for threads like this.

 

[DarkArterialGore]

Nixxes is an amazing dev. They ported a number of games and did a great job every time. Pretty sure even Digital Foundry were writing glowing stuff about them. It was pretty much: if the port was done by Nixxes, it'll be great. If somebody else, watch out.

Nah, I remember the ports Nixxes did for Deus Ex: Human Revolution & Deus Ex: Mankind Divided where stuttering messes upon release on PC. Their Tomb Raider series PC ports have been top notch though.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Doesn't take a slide rule to know Nixxes is going to be working alongside 1st party studios to support them through porting their games to PC.

 

[Fredrik]

Their Tomb Raider series PC ports have been top notch though.

Makes you wonder what will happen to Tomb Raider now. Will Square Enix contract Sony now to do Tomb Raider ports for PC? Or will Nixxes have their hands full doing Playstation-to-PC ports of their own games and Square Enix will have to find someone else to port Tomb Raider?

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

To quote John from Digital Foundry:

However, with Rise of the Tomb Raider, the situation is different. This time we have the talented bunch at Nixxes taking point on the Xbox 360 port and the results are remarkable.

Nixxes is great.

 

[bitbydeath]

that's looking at the evidence at hand. Sony states more PC ports coming, Sony buys studio known for porting games to PC...

that's like a guy going on record saying he wants to kill his wife with a shotgun, and then buys a shotgun 2 months later... would you not be concerned? lol would you tell the police "nah, he's not gonna do anything, you are interpreting too much unto this!"

There’s not even one PlayStation title on that list. I think there’s something bigger going on here, why would Sony want to upset Square Enix? They’ve become awfully close as of late, with numerous exclusive deals. I wonder if this is a step prior to purchasing SE?

 

[Shelookdlvl18]

There’s not even one PlayStation title on that list. I think there’s something bigger going on here, why would Sony want to upset Square Enix? They’ve become awfully close as of late, with numerous exclusive deals. I wonder if this is a step prior to purchasing SE?

If that were the case, then I would assume they'd have bought SE already.

I don't see this really being as big a deal as some are touting it to be. (Including Sony) It's a small studio that does porting work for a couple of bigger devs, and apparently have zero interest in developing games themselves.

Sony appears to have purchased a small team in order to help port games. Seeing as it's unlikely they'd hire him to port games to PS. There's really not many options left. I think it's pretty clear here exactly what Sony intends to do here.

 

[Brofist]

But remember, it's not an arms race guys

If it is then Sony is arming themselves with spitballs and slingshots though.

 

[Zeroing]

we have alternatives to why this happened
A. Sony plans to port more exclusives to pc
B. Sony needs an in house team who can help with all their games, instead of outsourcing it
C. Sony is will use the studio as it is, to continue porting games to pc, making the studio grow so it can handle more projects while the studio remains an outsider of Playstation.
D. Studio will remaster old IPs.

 

[Twinblade]

This was stupid.

 

[TheGrat1]

Edit: If the Bluepoint rumors are true then it looks like these guys will become the new Bluepoint (remasters and collections) and Bluepoint will finally make something original. Either that or they will be bolted on to Housemarque, due to proximity. Puzzling move at this point.
Edit2: Read further. Maybe they are going to be doing the PC/Mobile ports?

 

[DenchDeckard]

If you don’t think that one of the primary goals for this purchase was to assist in high quality ports to pc, you are deluded.

you are better accepting more exclusives coming to pc now and just get over it and realising it doesn’t matter in the long run. It will only help Sony receive more money to build better games.

 

[bitbydeath]

If that were the case, then I would assume they'd have bought SE already.

I don't see this really being as big a deal as some are touting it to be. (Including Sony) It's a small studio that does porting work for a couple of bigger devs, and apparently have zero interest in developing games themselves.

Sony appears to have purchased a small team in order to help port games. Seeing as it's unlikely they'd hire him to port games to PS. There's really not many options left. I think it's pretty clear here exactly what Sony intends to do here.

They’re not just a port studio, the only instance we know of them previously working with Sony was as a support studio, and it’s stated on their website that’s what they intend to be going forward so I’d say it’s rather open/shut in that regard. The real question is why take a large Square Enix resource?

 

[ZywyPL]

Just leave the PC port work and possibly the definitive edition work (Death Stranding and now Ghosts of Tushima seem to be using "Director's Cut" branding) to Nixxes completely.

Leave the remake/remaster work to BluePoint, and just have PS teams banging out game after games?

I believe that's exactly the plan, because realistically, if Sony want's to fully enter the PC market, their studios would need extra dev time which is already one of the longest in the industry, so this way their "main" studios will focus on just making new content. Take yesterday's GoT DC for example - with an extra year that would be needed to port the game to PC, Sucker Punch made an expansion instead, added something new. Same for remasters, why waste time for old stuff most people already played instead of making something actually new? Sony just cant afford to involve all their big studios into porting/remaking their old games, someone has to constantly bring the new stuff, and acquiring Nixxes is a great move to manage exactly that. And yeah, they really need to acquire BP now as well, that would perfectly complement Nixxes takeover, one studio specialized in PC ports and one specialized in remasters, so none of their main devs loses even a single day for something else than making new games.

 

[MOTM]

Sony doesn't need to do shit. They destroy xbox in every front. You well they can afford anybody. Sony is playing with profits not maus

Yet here they are buying the most random studios that will allow themselves to be bought

I guess when you don’t have the means to make proper investments you go out and buy these guys. I thought Jim said yesterday they only buy studios with whom they have “deep relationships”.

 

[Banjo64]

I do wonder what the scope is of Sony’s PC porting ambition.

Could we see games like Jak and Daxter and the older Ratchet and Clanks ported to Steam? Will Nixxie be able to port PS3 games or would that be too much work? Stuff like Ico, The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus would surely sell very well.

 

[Shelookdlvl18]

They’re not just a port studio, the only instance we know of them previously working with Sony was as a support studio, and it’s stated on their website that’s what they intend to be going forward so I’d say it’s rather open/shut in that regard. The real question is why take a large Square Enix resource?

Hey, you can see it any which way you want. They're work has consisted almost entirely of porting work for CD and Edios since before they were picked up by SE.

The most likely conclusion to me would be...

That SE simply continued to use them for certain ports because they already had a working relationship with CD on the Tomb Raider series. When one company aquires another, it's common for the acquired company to continue to use the same contractors. As that's the case, there's nothing that suggests they're anything close to being "a large Square Enix resource." They were simply one of many that are easily replaceable.

In my opinion, attempting to connect this to SE is a stretch. A long one at that. Sony has stated that they intend to bring more of their games to pc as well as mobile. This definitely looks to be a move with that goal in mind. There's literally nothing to suggest otherwise.

 

[bitbydeath]

Hey, you can see it any which way you want. They're work has consisted almost entirely of porting work for CD and Edios since before they were picked up by SE.

The most likely conclusion to me would be...

That SE simply continued to use them for certain ports because they already had a working relationship with CD on the Tomb Raider series. When one company aquires another, it's common for the acquired company to continue to use the same contractors. As that's the case, there's nothing that suggests they're anything close to being "a large Square Enix resource." They were simply one of many that are easily replaceable.

In my opinion, attempting to connect this to SE is a stretch. A long one at that. Sony has stated that they intend to bring more of their games to pc as well as mobile. This definitely looks to be a move with that goal in mind. There's literally nothing to suggest otherwise.

It’s written on their website and doesn’t leave room for any ambiguity. You should have a read.

Nixxes joins PlayStation Studios - NIXXES

Sony Interactive Entertainment (“SIE”) announced today that SIE has completed the acquisition of Nixxes Software B.V. (“Nixxes”).

www.nixxes.com

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

Probably going to help port Half-Life: Alyx to PSVR2.

 

[daclynk]

cool more PS games coming PC

 

[NoviDon]

Besides porting, it sounds like this developments team is going to really help other SIE studios that are falling behind on development and need extra talented hands to get back on track to hit launch milestones. Its another underrated pick up that will have a noticeable impact in the whole gaming division.

With this, and also a possible bluepoint acquisition announcement soon, its really interesting seeing Sony acquiring teams that are focused on providing a support pipeline that will help in steps:

-add manpower to a project to improve efficiency and stay on schedule
-in a couple years port the project to other platforms
- 3-4 years if the project is successful after that create a remake or remaster for next gen platforms. (which frees up the main team to not make remasters and instead focus completely on their next original game.)

It makes the whole development pipeline a well oiled machine oscillating in tandem.

 

[skit_data]

I bet they are involved in the development of Horizon FW right now, since they are based in the Nederlands and have assisted Guerilla before on Killzone SF.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Doesn't take a slide rule to know Nixxes is going to be working alongside 1st party studios to support them through porting their games to PC.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Doesn't take a slide rule to know Nixxes is going to be working alongside 1st party studios to support them through porting their games to PC.

Not only that but it appears they can also offer support with developing the games themselves. I don't believe their only purpose will be to make PC ports.

 

[Prof. Tivor Tontomo]

WOW! Didn't know that page existed. And wow at the reason for the ban. I knew he would do that to alot of my post, but didn't realize it was noticed by the Mods here too.

Uhhhh who are you referring too?

 

[mckmas8808]

Sony have started bringing games to PC. Have already announced more PC games coming, buys a studio famous for their PC ports. But no they will be helping Sony's first party studios, come on now.
I mean i'm sure they will help when needed, but i'm also sure they were bought for Sony's PC strategy first.

So they can't do both? You don't find it interesting that Herman himself posted that tweet?

 

[mckmas8808]

Uhhhh who are you referring too?

Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Bryank75]

hey Bryank75 how was vacation?

I brought back t-shirts for the mods!

 

[Andodalf]

I do wonder what the scope is of Sony’s PC porting ambition.

Could we see games like Jak and Daxter and the older Ratchet and Clanks ported to Steam? Will Nixxie be able to port PS3 games or would that be too much work? Stuff like Ico, The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus would surely sell very well.

I would kill for this, but I feel like they would see that as competitive with PSNow

 

[Jaguar Victory]

That is good.

They are like BluePoint... more focused in Remakes/Remasters.
I hope they are allowed to do something original.

They're going to remaster Sony first party games to PC my guy so Sony can make more money. Now the only question is will they do it day/date or like a couple of years later. To me it seems this was done to free up the creating studios resources

 

[Bryank75]

I would kill for this, but I feel like they would see that as competitive with PSNow

It's already competing with PSNow...

A huge issue with PlayStation is the lack of vision and focus. Seems like they just try to compete in every area and have no idea where they want to go themselves.