Port Factory, a console porting and game engineering studio run by four industry veterans, goes public today. The company has already completed ports of four games: Tingus Goose (PS5, XBOX, Nintendo Switch), Bulb Boy Anthology (PS5, XBOX), 1998: The Toll Keeper Story (PS5) and Grim Trials (Nintendo Switch).
The company’s services cover PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo console porting, controller and platform-specific functionality, QA and functional testing, and more. Port Factory uniquely takes a market-driven approach to porting, with a tailored commercial case developed for each game. The long-term goal is a repeatable pipeline that lets developers and publishers bring games to more platforms with minimal friction.
“The objective isn’t to sell the developer the most expensive port we can. It is to find
a route onto PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo that has a realistic chance of making
commercial sense,” said Scott Millard, Port Factory co-founder.
“Porting is engineering, but deciding to port a game is a business decision,” said
Artur Mikołajczyk. “Developers understand very quickly when the numbers stop
making sense, especially those on the indie-side, so the conversation starts with
what is sustainable for the game and the studio.”
“There is a huge difference between asking whether a game can be ported and
asking whether it should be ported at a particular cost,” Millard added. “We want
more good games on more platforms and making the economics work is what makes
that possible.”
Founding Shareholders
Port Factory has four founding shareholders in four countries, each from a different
corner of the business:
- Scott Millard (South Korea) founded independent publisher Dark Product. He has more than three decades of publishing and commercial experience, including stints at Sega, Atari and Bandai Namco, and has spent years bringing independent PC games to console.
- Iain Garner (Taiwan) and Vladislav Tsopljak (Singapore) founded developer services company Goldpact Goblins and are exited founders of Neon Doctrine. Their background covers production, publishing, business development and go-to-market work with independent developers.
- Artur Mikołajczyk (Sydney, Australia) founded Bulbware. He is the developer on the team: someone who has designed, built and shipped games while facing the same technical and commercial calls Port Factory’s clients do.
“Between us we have sat on every side of this conversation,” said Garner. “A
successful indie developer may know that there is an audience waiting on console,
but that doesn’t automatically mean a conventional porting proposal makes sense for
that game. The commercial model has to fit the project, not the other way around.”
With partners in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia, Port Factory has a practical footprint across some of the region’s most active and fast-changing games markets. “For a long time, the industry talked about Asia mainly as a market to enter,” said Tsopljak. “Today, developers, publishers and commercial opportunities are coming from within the region and Port Factory has been built inside to support local developers and international aspirants.”
For more information, visit https://www.portfactory.net/.
