A new game porting studio founded by veterans of Sega, Atari, Bandai Namco and Neon Doctrine is taking a different approach to bringing games to consoles. Port Factory has officially launched with four completed ports already available, while its business model aims to make console releases more financially viable for independent developers.
Based across South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia, the studio wants to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to porting costs. Rather than beginning with a technical assessment and building a quote around the work required, Port Factory first considers a game’s audience, genre, price and existing sales to determine which platforms offer a realistic commercial opportunity.
The idea is to match the scope and cost of a port to its potential returns, rather than treating a five-dollar indie game like a thirty-dollar release. Depending on the project, that could mean launching on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch simultaneously, targeting specific platforms first, or deciding that a port would not make financial sense.
Port Factory has already completed four projects ahead of its public launch: Tingus Goose for PlayStation 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch; Bulb Boy Anthology for PlayStation 5 and Xbox; 1998: The Toll Keeper Story for PlayStation 5; and Grim Trials for Nintendo Switch.
The studio was established earlier this year, with its founders using those projects to build and test their production pipeline before announcing the business publicly. Its team brings together experience across publishing, development, production, business development and bringing independent games to market.
Scott Millard, founder of independent publisher Dark Product, brings more than 30 years of industry experience, including time at Sega, Atari and Bandai Namco. Iain Garner and Vladislav Tsopljak are former Neon Doctrine founders who went on to establish developer services company Goldpact Goblins, while Artur Mikołajczyk founded Bulbware and brings hands-on game development experience to the team.
Beyond porting games to PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo platforms, Port Factory offers Unity and Unreal engineering, performance and memory optimization, platform-specific feature integration, quality assurance, certification preparation and submission support. It can also provide co-development and general engineering services, with specialist partners available for engines beyond Unity and Unreal.
While the studio’s founders are spread across four Asia-Pacific markets, Port Factory intends to work with both regional developers and international studios looking to bring their games to new audiences. Its broader goal is to establish a repeatable porting process that helps developers expand their platform reach without taking on costs that their games may struggle to recoup.
For independent developers weighing a console release, Port Factory’s approach puts the commercial question ahead of the technical one: not simply whether a game can be ported, but whether doing so is worth the investment.