Sony’s latest studio acquisition is big news for PC gamers

By Otto Kratky July 1, 2021

Sony acquired another new company today, although not one you may have heard of. In a tweet, the head of PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, announced that Dutch studio Nixxes Software will be joining PlayStation Studios.

The company lives in relative obscurity because it hasn’t actually made any games itself. Instead, Nixxes specializes in, according to its About Us page, “video game design, development, and porting,” with a big focus on that last part.

Nixxes has played a role in various platform ports of multiple games, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider, and Deux Ex: Mankind Divided, each of which it helped port to PC. The studio also played a role in converting Rise of the Tomb Raider to Xbox One X and is involved with Marvel’s Avengers, although it doesn’t say in what capacity.

Sony acquiring a studio known for its PC ports leads to some pretty interesting assumptions. The tech giant has already made it clear that it intends to bring more PlayStation games to PC, with Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone already making their way over to the platform. However, acquiring an entire studio that specializes in that task is a large investment and points toward a greater push from Sony to get its games on PC, perhaps even faster. Horizon Zero Dawn hit PCs in August 2020, over three years after its original release date in February 2017. Likewise, Days Gone launched on PC in May, just over two years after it first hit the PlayStation 4 in April 2019.

Sony’s purchase of Nixxes comes just days after it acquired Returnal developer Housemarque. “Housemarque’s recent release of Returnal proves the studio is one with incredible vision, capable of creating memorable new games that resonate with our community,” said Hulst.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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