Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today that game developer Bungie (destiny 2) for $3.6 billion.
That’s the message: Sony announced today that it has acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion.
Bungie will continue as an independent sub-company and will be overseen by current CEO Pete Parsons and the rest of the current management team.
Bungie remains independent and a multiplatform studio
Stay Destiny on Xbox? Yes, that’s what it looks like. Sony says Bungie will remain a “multi-platform studio” with the option to self-publish games and reach players wherever you want to reach them.
It is expressly emphasized that the purchase by Sony should not affect the gaming experience on other platforms. There will be no “platform exclusives” in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, the next expansion.
The plan still stands to continue developing Destiny into 2024 and The Final Shape. Cross-platform will also continue to exist.
Important step to increase the range of the PlayStation
Sony says: CEO Jim Ryan says:
“We’ve had a strong partnership with Bungie since the beginning of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn’t be more excited to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family.”
Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment
Ryan also says the Bungie acquisition is an important step in the strategy to expand the reach of the PlayStation platform. We know how important the community is to Bungie and look forward to supporting Bungie on its journey as an independent and growing studio.
Bungie says: Bungie emphasizes that in Sony they have found a partner who will give you unconditional support and give you the creative freedom that is at Bungie’s heart.
One believes that Sony, like Bungie itself, believes that the game worlds are just the beginning of what Bungie’s game series can do.
Together they want to develop “iconic game brands” that are played around the world. Today the step is to become a global multi-media entertainment company.
Bungie says you can now hire more staff for Destiny 2
How does this affect Destiny 2? Bungie says what Destiny 2 players will immediately notice is that they will now be hiring “new staff” at their studio.
One will recruit for “all parts of Destiny 2” and for the worlds that lie beyond.
In November 2020, Luke Smith admitted that Bungie would probably never be able to make another expansion as big as Forsaken (2018) for Destiny after splitting up with Activision Blizzard. That seems to have changed again now.
Boss of Destiny 2 says: “It’s unlikely that something like Forsaken will ever come again”
Sony Says No Response to Microsoft’s Purchase of Activision Blizzard
This is behind it: The Bungie purchase is of course seen as a direct response to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. But Sony denies this.
Activision Blizzard had said it had to sell because it no longer considered itself big enough for the “new world.” Because in the new world of entertainment, you compete with billionaire companies like Apple, Facebook or Google.
This is already the 3rd big purchase in gaming in 2022. Before that, Take-Two had already taken over the mobile developer Zynga.
The difference between Sony’s purchase of Bungie compared to the other two big purchases is that Bungie is not a publicly traded company and therefore there is no takeover offer, but there is talk of a purchase and not just a purchase -Intention.
Sony wants to develop more MMOs itself
However, Sony says: The deal had been in the planning for 5 to 6 months and therefore no reaction to the other deals. By purchasing Bungie, expect:
- the possibility to develop more “MMOs” yourself – i.e. “live service multiplayer games”
- an increase in technical possibilities
- and the prospect of adapting games to films and TV series
The purchase is certainly also a reaction from Bungie to the fact that Destiny 2 has not been able to be developed as much as in previous years since the separation from Activision Blizzard since 2019.
Destiny 2 without Activision Blizzard should be great, so far it’s disappointing