Well.
Sony is acquiring Bungie – the game studio behind Halo and Destiny – for US$3.6 billion.
Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interaction Entertainment said Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and publisher, and the studio’s expertise in multi-platform development and live game services will help Sony’s vision of “expanding the PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers”.
Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie, also wrote in a blog post that “we believe games have limitless potential, and that to do anything worthwhile in entertainment, we must bet big on our vision, on our studio, and on our incredible team of trusted creators who build unforgettable worlds that truly matter to people.”
Does this mean Destiny 2 will become a PlayStation exclusive? Unlikely, since Sony said Bungie will remain a multi-platform publisher.
The wording of the deal also suggests Bungie will retain creative independence despite being part of the Sony family; able to publish its own games despite being owned by Sony.
In fact, Bungie released this FAQ for Destiny 2 players who might be concerned about how they might be impacted by the deal, reassuring gamers that Destiny 2 will remain a multi-platform game.
With this acquisition though, Bungie joins studios like Housemarque and Bluepoint games, as part of the Sony family.
The last few months have seen some big gaming buyouts – just weeks ago, Microsoft bought troubled gaming studio Activision Blizzard for over US$68 billion dollars and earlier in January, Take-Two Interactive bought mobile gaming company Zynga (the brains behind FarmVille) for US$12.7 billion.
*Featured image from PlayStation
By Samantha Chan \ 10:00am, 8 February 2022