In a surprising announcement, it’s been revealed that Sony will be buying Bungie, the video game developer that launched such franchises as Halo and Destiny. The deal is currently valued at $3.6 billion, and comes just after Microsoft made the effort to purchase Activision Blizzard.
While Bungie did initially develop and maintain the Halo franchise, the rights for said property are now with Microsoft. As such, that game series won’t be effected by the purchase. However, this does now give Sony rights to Destiny – which has gained its own massive popularity over the years. It appears these deals are only the first step in Sony and Microsoft furthering their competition with one another.
As revealed via WSJ, it’s also important as a means for the two companies to keep more exclusives for their respective consoles. This was noted by Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz, who stated the following:
“Sony and Microsoft have been in a multiyear arms race of sorts for talent and developers,” said Uerkwitz. “Being at a critical juncture in the console cycle and on the cusp of bigger subscription services, first-party titles have never been more important.”
Furthermore, it’s been elaborated that Bungie will be an independent subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. With this stated, it will continue to be run by Chief Executive Pete Parsons as well as their current management team. As noted by Sony Group Chairman and Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida:
“Bungie has created and continues to evolve some of the world’s most beloved videogame franchises and, by aligning its values with people’s desire to share gameplay experiences, they bring together millions of people around the world,” they explained.
It’s also been stated that this deal is intended to help Bungie grow as a company. What’s more, they will continue their focus on expanding and maintaining Destiny 2, along with other Destiny games and other original IPs. With so many game developers being merged and acquired by larger companies, it’ll be interesting to see where this takes the industry going forward. There will no doubt be some massive changes, especially with increases to peoples’ usage of online entertainment and video games.