Sony Buys Up Studios This Week

Well, someone at Sony dropped their wallet this week. Rumors of the company buying studios have been fly left, right, and center all week. It started early in the week as it was announced that the PS5-exclusive Returnal developer, Housemarque, would be joining the ranks of Sony’s first-party studios. Of course, the most notable game by the Finnish studio is their recent release, Returnal. Though if you’re a fan of the Vita (unlike Sony), you may remember the fun Super Stardust Delta, a sequel in the twin-stick shooter series, Stardust.

..so apparently PlayStation Japan uploaded the wrong image with their first tweet on Housemarque's acquisition, and it actually mentions a Bluepoint acquisition pic.twitter.com/yQBHtLbG5c

— Nibel (@Nibellion) June 29, 2021

Then out of nowhere, there were rumors of the company buying up another studio you may have heard of. Bluepoint is possibly best known for its ports/remakes, such as the PS3 ports of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. They are also known for the Metal Gear Solid HD remakes, also for the PS3 and Xbox 360. More recently, they remade the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection for the PS4, and finally made Shadow of the Colossus run well on the PS4 too. However, as a fan of the Souls series, it would be wrong of me not to mention their very recent Demon’s Souls remake for the PS5. Though, when it comes to rumors of their acquisition, the studio said they are “fully independent.”

Then yesterday, PlayStation Studios boss Herman Hulst made the announcement on Twitter of the acquisition of Nixxes Software. I can hear it, what is Nixxes Software? Have you played the Tomb Raider series on PC, or maybe the most recent Deus Ex is your thing? Hitman Absolution is another example if you are a cretin. Or even Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers might have been the PC port you’ve played. The point I am trying to make is that the studio is a PC porting specialist, and as we’ve seen recently, Sony is hitting the PC market hard.

Excited to announce that the talented Dutch studio Nixxes Software will be joining PlayStation Studios. It's a real pleasure to welcome a team with such deep technical expertise and vast experience to the @Playstation family. Huge congrats to everyone @NixxesSoftware!

— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) July 1, 2021

Lately, we’ve seen PlayStation push to get (for example) Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone on PC, with the upcoming release of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End expected next. Rumors swirled just last week of Ghost of Tsushima coming to PC soon too. All of these have kicked up the less substantial rumors that Bloodborne will be next, though I would hope it is true so it could be played at a decent frame rate, for once. All of that undoubtedly starts with the purchase of Nixxes Software, the conversation of all the possibilities.