Intro: Sony Acquires Nixxes Software
On July 1, 2021, Sony PlayStation announced that it acquired Nixxes Software. It was the second acquisition in 3 days as the company also acquired Housemarque on June 29.
The latter studio is known for its shoot'em ups from Super Stardust to Resogun to Nex Machina. The studio decided to mix it up a bit with its most recent game, Returnal, a roguelike third-person shooter. While the genre was a departure from Housemarque's usual, the game was very well received to the point Sony decided to bring it under the PlayStation Studios wing.
Nex Machina is as flashy as it is fun.
The Nixxes Software acquisition was also noteworthy albeit for a different reason. The studio has been a longtime partner of Crystal Dynamics, a subsidiary of Square Enix who's known for the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the infamous Marvel's Avengers video game. If you check Nixxe's projects, the studio is responsible for all the PC ports of Crystal Dynamics's games.
All of Nixxes Software's projects, thus far.
Nixxes Software was responsible for porting Shadow of the Tomb Raider to PC.
But... Why?
Initially, it does seem like Sony's acquisition of Nixxes Software is contradictory. After all, the former just launched the PlayStation 5 last November and Nixxes has not really made its own games. So why buy up a studio that will not help boost the PS5's sales?
Actually, there's more to the story. In fact, Sony releasing its first party games on PC is not out of the question. If you check the PlayStation Studios Steam page, you will see that the company has ported some of its games to PC, most notably Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone. The former game is even available on GOG if you greatly value game ownership.
On top of that, it's shown that releasing a PC version can significantly boost sales numbers. For example, Death Stranding, a Kojima Productions game that was published by Sony on the PlayStation 4 and 505 Games on Steam, managed to eclipse 5 million sales on July 26, 2021. There were rumblings last March that Sony was unsatisfied with Death Stranding's commercial performance and with reports of Microsoft publishing Kojima's next game, this provides further corroboration. With the Steam version launching on July 14, 2020, it is very likely that the game wouldn't have crossed 5 million without the PC port.
And it appears that Sony does indeed consider the PC platform as a big revenue stream. In an interview with Famitsu (secondary source), PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that Nixxes will help port Sony's first party games to PC:
"We are also happy with our efforts to provide our IP to PCs, although it is still in its infancy, and we look forward to working with Nixxes to help with that." ~ Jim Ryan
Closing Thoughts: Great of PC Gaming
While I have given Sony a lot of grief for its censorship and attitude towards Japanese and indie developers, this recent move is a great thing for gaming. More people can access Sony' first party games without needing to buy its consoles. Fanboys will fanboy, but you're better off ignoring their cringe.
Yeah, fanboys can say and do some utterly embarrassing things.
From a personal standpoint, this news is great as this will allow me to consolidate my library to PC. I don't expect Sony to release their upcoming first party games with a PC version Day 1. After all, the company doesn't want to lose out on its 30% platform cut. That said, considering I have a pretty big Steam and GOG backlog (Falcom's Trails series is a slow, sloooow burn), I am more than willing to wait a few years until the PC versions come out. On top of that, the money I save from not buying a PS5 can be put towards upgrading my rig.
P.S. - I still think paying $60/year to play multiplayer is the dumbest thing ever. I look forward to play the Ghost of Tsushima Legends multiplayer on PC in a few years without needing to pay for PS Plus.
