Since Horizon: Zero Dawn first arrived on PC back in 2020, Sony has shown no signs of slowing down on porting their first party library across to the platform. Nixxes software handled the PC ports for Insomniac’s Spider-Man Remastered, its follow-up Miles Morales Remastered and it’s been announced that they’re also behind the port for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, launching July 26th.
Recently Nixxes had their very own studio spotlight which you can watch below, where they break down what they do and how they do it. Lead engineer Coen Frauenfelder highlights the studio’s main skillset lies not just in ports but also in remastered titles.
Many would agree that one of Xbox’s highlight features is being able to play older games from previous generations, something that PlayStation is somewhat lacking in other than a small library of digital PS2 ports and PS3 games only available via streaming.
With the costs and timeframes for development in the AAA arena constantly increasing, remastered titles are an opportunity for publishers and studios to not only provide gamers with the nostalgic experiences they crave, but also to cut down on the time it takes to release a product.
How Nixxes Approaches Remastered Titles
As pointed out by Nixxes Systems Programmer Alexandra Cunetchi, the studio works on a project for anywhere between three to six months. Therefore, remastered titles are developed in a significantly shorter timeframe than the multiple years that can be required to create just a single brand-new AAA game.
While a remake usually means recreating a game from the ground up with new systems and features, such as the recent Resident Evil 4 running on the RE Engine, a remastered title generally means just improving the graphical fidelity of a title such as adding HD textures, improved framerate, faster loading times and sometimes Quality of Life improvements to an older game.
Also read: “They Cost How Much?”: The Last of Us Part 2 and Horizon: Forbidden West’s Budgets Were Astronomical
There’s a rich library of dormant IPs that are ripe for the remastered treatment including SOCOM, Killzone, inFAMOUS, and Resistance to name just a few. If the successes of The Last of Us Part 1 and Resident Evil 4 are anything to go by, it seems like a very obvious strategy for PlayStation.
Even relatively recent titles such as Horizon: Zero Dawn are rumored to be getting the remastered treatment and we’ve seen many games receive welcome next-gen upgrades from PS4 to PS5 via software updates.
The only question that remains is what games would you like to see return from previous PlayStation eras and get the remastered treatment?
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