Famous PC Port Modder Makes His Own Studio

Way, way back when Dark Souls was first ported to the PC, it was famous – or infamous – for the crappy quality of the port, and was just jam-packed with bugs, issues, and all kinds of problems. From Software blamed the fact they had never done a port before, which was fairly obvious, because not more than a few hours after it had been released a modder named Peter "Durante" Thoman was able to release a “fan patch” that improved the game in a number of small but extremely meaningful ways, showing how one guy was better at porting than an entire multi-million dollar company.

The world was introduced to Peter, but he wasn’t done yet: he continued to release mods for bad PC ports (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV, Trails of Cold Steel II, etc.), giving him a reputation that eventually made him a figure within the industry, someone that was actually consulted by developers before they released their own ports.

But if you do something well, there’s no reason to do it for free, as the old adage goes. And now Peter “Durante” Thoman has elevated his game by announcing he’s opening a brand-new studio, called PH3, that specializes exclusively in porting console games to the PC.

The forum goes on for a bit, but from the scattered bits of information, he’s said that he wants to focus on PC ports for the time being and likes the advantage of a small team over a big one. While producing new games isn’t “out of the question,” right now they just want to stick with what he’s known for and does best: quality PC ports.

Fortunately, he has the reputation that should make his company in pretty high demand. Unfortunately, with direct console-to-PC ports on the decline these days, he might be a little late to the party. But, better late than never.