Sony answers Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard by purchasing Bungie for $3.6...

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,292   +192
Staff member
What just happened? Sony has quickly responded to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard by agreeing to purchase Bungie, the original creator of the Halo franchise (it's since parted ways with Microsoft) and the developer of Destiny. Once the deal closes, Bungie will be an independent subsidiary of Sony Interactive with a board led by Pete Parsons, Bungie’s existing CEO, alongside the rest of the current management team.

Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan said he wanted to be clear with the community that Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and publisher.

Bungie was founded in 1991 and acquired by Microsoft in 2000, reportedly just days before Apple was going to acquire the studio, and repositioned Halo: Combat Evolved as a launch title for the Xbox.

Bungie separated from Microsoft in 2007, but Microsoft retained the rights to the Halo franchise. The studio has since launched the multiplayer first-person shooter franchise Destiny, which comprises two major releases so far.

Sony will pay $3.6 billion for Bungie, which is now based in Bellevue, Washington, and has more than 900 employees on payroll.

Bungie has published an FAQ on the subject, noting that its plans for Destiny 2 – including the upcoming expansion The Witch Queen – will not change as a result of the acquisition. There will be no platform exclusives, and all of the previously announced platforms will still be supported.

This is the third major gaming acquisition in January, following Take-Two Interactive’s $12.7 billion purchase of Zynga and Microsoft’s monster $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard. Sony’s deal for Bungie is tiny in comparison to the others, but could be the first of more to come.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93200-sony-answers-microsoft-acquisition-activision-blizzard-purchasing-bungie.html

 
Feels like answering to a 1000 dollars with a couple of pennies. I'm sure there's talent still in Bungie but is literally an order of magnitude less money and they also carry as fewer properties as well compared to the giant MS bought.

And also I still think they should have aimed for Capcom or Square instead, but they're probably valued higher than Bungie so it means Sony is on an even lesser position economically than what I assumed...Or that they really think Western devs are the key to winning instead of realizing they can't outspend Microsoft, nobody can unless it's a similar giant like Google or Apple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ironmanajm
Lol, after getting out from under MS and Activision, they go and sell themselves out to another big company.

I guess Destiny wasn't successful enough for them...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ironmanajm and terzaerian
I mean this does reak of desperation to me. Nobody cares about Bungie. Their one game "Destiny" hasn't been able to generate hype in years now. Their next expansion is coming literally in less than a month and I don't see any buzz about it on any gaming site.

Sony is literally buying stuff just so MS couldn't buy it.
 
Bungie still has talent, but they've wasted the last decade on Destiny. Sure it has its own playbase that still enjoys the game. But not a IP that will sell consoles.

That being said, Bungie is a solid dev and would be interesting to see what can come out of them that isn't Destiny.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kosmoz
Shear said:
I mean this does reak of desperation to me. Nobody cares about Bungie. Their one game "Destiny" hasn't been able to generate hype in years now. Their next expansion is coming literally in less than a month and I don't see any buzz about it on any gaming site.

Sony is literally buying stuff just so MS couldn't buy it.
Click to expand...

Destiny is currently the 13th most popular game on Steam, which is pretty good for a game that released in 2017. That number will jump considerably when Witch Queen releases next month.

I'm interested to see how Sony's other studios can leverage some of Bungie's technology. I think they have the best take on the "live service MMO" genre, and I suspect their tech & expertise is a big part of why Sony made the purchase. I would love to see how Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla, Polyphony Digital, Bend, Sucker Punch, and their other first party studios can learn from Bungie's expertise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Charles Olson, Grecs, SchraderAZ and 1 other person
Who cares. Sony is clearly, vocally butthurt about the MS acquisition, but there's not much they can do. This really is 100% just a troll move. Kinda like "two can play that game, boo now we have Halo", except they don't. It has a symbolic meaning, but not much else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ironmanajm
Sold for $3.6 Billion and all they've made since leaving Microsoft is two games, both in the same franchise.

What a ludicrous amount of money. And Devs wonder why we don't take them seriously when they say games should be more expensive...
 
Bungie still has their fans. Not many but still fairly substantial.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Sony manages this. If Sony stays like Sony has been, Bungie could release a checkers game, and Sony will lock it down to the PlayStation for years. Then, nobody has a right to complain when Microsoft does the same thing with their dozen+ games that actually mean something.
 
DrewTheBrave said:
Destiny is currently the 13th most popular game on Steam, which is pretty good for a game that released in 2017. That number will jump considerably when Witch Queen releases next month.

I'm interested to see how Sony's other studios can leverage some of Bungie's technology. I think they have the best take on the "live service MMO" genre, and I suspect their tech & expertise is a big part of why Sony made the purchase. I would love to see how Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla, Polyphony Digital, Bend, Sucker Punch, and their other first party studios can learn from Bungie's expertise.
Click to expand...
Destiny 2 is only 2nd to WoW in Total Player count at 38.86m. Right know as I type this there are 1,039,059 players playing online worldwide.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DrewTheBrave, Charles Olson and Grecs
The "console wars" are over, gaming is now entering the content wars. I really hope that the "Netflix model" works better for gaming than it has for television and movies. I guess you will still have the option to purchase games, but I wouldn't be surprised if subscription only games and content start popping up like Netflix or Amazon original content.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ironmanajm
Shear said:
I mean this does reak of desperation to me. Nobody cares about Bungie. Their one game "Destiny" hasn't been able to generate hype in years now. Their next expansion is coming literally in less than a month and I don't see any buzz about it on any gaming site.

Sony is literally buying stuff just so MS couldn't buy it.
Click to expand...
This is actually something Sony needs. They do not have something akin to Destiny in their portfolio. Hopefully they don't go all in on games as a service.

And hopefully they don't become freaking PS exclusive games...
 
Puiu said:
This is actually something Sony needs. They do not have something akin to Destiny in their portfolio. Hopefully they don't go all in on games as a service.

And hopefully they don't become freaking PS exclusive games...
Click to expand...
From what I was reading about this whole deal it appears to me that Sony bought them for the tech Bungie has developed not for the IP. It's absolutely true that Destiny is far more popular than I thought. But It's not the game Sony wants. They want to make Destiny type of games with their own IPs.

Also, this is about talent acquisition. It's easier to just outright buy studios with established teams that work well than build something from the ground up. Takes years to do that.

Bungie was also very adamant that they are still retaining their ability to self-publish and they are going to continue being a multiplatform developer. It's a strange deal I must admit. Because Sony owns them but Bungie is still self-determined. It's weird. Whatever though. I want stiff competition between MS and Sony. It's good for us if they are fighting for our money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DrewTheBrave and SchraderAZ
Shear said:
From what I was reading about this whole deal it appears to me that Sony bought them for the tech Bungie has developed not for the IP. It's absolutely true that Destiny is far more popular than I thought. But It's not the game Sony wants. They want to make Destiny type of games with their own IPs.

Also, this is about talent acquisition. It's easier to just outright buy studios with established teams that work well than build something from the ground up. Takes years to do that.

Bungie was also very adamant that they are still retaining their ability to self-publish and they are going to continue being a multiplatform developer. It's a strange deal I must admit. Because Sony owns them but Bungie is still self-determined. It's weird. Whatever though. I want stiff competition between MS and Sony. It's good for us if they are fighting for our money.
Click to expand...
"They want to make Destiny type of games with their own IPs." - it's what I was alluding to when I said "something akin to". They definitely want to make similar games.
 
Although it's super beneficial for us XB gamers to have XB acquire Activison, this acquisition war is not good for the gaming industry as a whole tbh. Monopolies r always a negative later on, hence this whole war must come to an end, it's getting totally out of hand ffs.
 
Ironmanajm said:
Although it's super beneficial for us XB gamers to have XB acquire Activison, this acquisition war is not good for the gaming industry as a whole tbh. Monopolies r always a negative later on, hence this whole war must come to an end, it's getting totally out of hand ffs.
Click to expand...
I get why people feel this way but it should be pointed out that the same thing has been happening in the movie industry for decades.

Just last year Amazon acquired MGM.
AT&T bought Time Warner (Warner Brothers) and New Line a few years ago.
Disney acquired 20th Century Fox.
Sony now owns Columbia and Tristar Pictures. Has since the 80s.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ironmanajm
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

midian182
Xbox still has plans for day-one Activision Blizzard titles on Game Pass
Replies
3
Views
185
Revolution 11
R
midian182
Activision Blizzard investigates hacking campaign linked to cheat software
Replies
5
Views
177
Uncle Al
Uncle Al
midian182
Microsoft's amended Activision Blizzard deal appears to avoid EU probe, expected to complete...
Replies
2
Views
353
Wye43
W

Latest posts

Back