Sony Acquires Bungie for $3.6 Billion - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 31 January 2022 / 7,401 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it is acquiring Destiny developer, Bungie, for $3.6 billion.
Bungie will remain "an independent subsidiary" of Sony Interactive Entertainment once the deal closes. The studio will be run by a board of directors that consist of current CEO Pete Parsons and the rest of the current management team.
Sony also announced Bungie will remain a multiplatform studio and will have an option "to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play," according to GamesIndustry.
"We've had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn't be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family," said Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan.
"This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience. We understand how vital Bungie's community is to the studio and look forward to supporting them as they remain independent and continue to grow. Like Bungie, our community is core to PlayStation's DNA, and our shared passion for the gamer and building the best place to play will now evolve even further."
Parsons added, "Both Bungie and SIE believe that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IP will become. Our original universes have immense potential and, with SIE's support, we will propel Bungie into becoming a global multimedia entertainment company dedicated to delivering on our creative vision."
"I am absolutely thrilled to announce a new member will be joining the PlayStation family!" said the head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst via the PlayStation Blog. "I’ve been a fan of Bungie for many years. I have admired and enjoyed the games that they create – and have great respect for their skill in building worlds that gamers want to explore again and again.
"Bungie makes games with outstanding technology that are enormously fun to play. They also have unmatched dedication to the communities that play their games, and everyone at PlayStation, and PlayStation Studios, will be excited about what we can share and learn from them.
"I have spent a great deal of time with the senior team at Bungie and it is clear their experience and skills are highly complementary to our own. We will be ready to welcome and support Bungie as they continue to grow, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this incredible team."
Read a message from Jim Ryan via the SIE Blog below:
We are thrilled to announce that Sony Interactive Entertainment has entered into an agreement to acquire Bungie, which will bring one of the world’s greatest development studios into the PlayStation family. Bungie has created two of gaming’s most iconic franchises, Halo and Destiny, and has deep expertise in bringing incredible immersive experiences at great scale to the community through games that evolve and develop over time, and has a hugely impressive roadmap for future content. It’s that expertise coupled with the highly engaged PlayStation community that makes this partnership such an incredibly exciting addition.
Bungie’s successful track record in multi-format publishing and live game services will assist us in realizing our ambitions to take PlayStation beyond the console and increase our potential audience. They will remain independent and multi-platform, will enjoy creative freedom, and their track record in developing massively successful franchises in the sci-fi shooter genre will be highly complementary to SIE’s own IP portfolio.
This is a strategic step towards continuing to evolve the gaming experiences that we build. Bungie’s expertise in delivering a world-class service approach and long-term community engagement is extremely compelling and will support the development of several future live services titles from PlayStation Studios. Equally, we see the exceptional skills that PlayStation Studios possess offers the potential to enhance Bungie’s existing and future IP portfolio.
We have a long history of understanding the creative process, developing best in class technology, and delivering the most powerful storytelling in the industry. We are developer-and gamer-focused and entertainment is in our DNA. From our early acquisitions of iconic studios including Naughty Dog (2001), Guerrilla (2005), and Sucker Punch Productions (2011) to our homegrown development studios including Santa Monica Studio and Polyphony Digital, we have great experience in fostering creative talent and maintaining a culture that allows creative independence but also provides structure and support.
We’ve had a strong relationship with Bungie for many years. And we’ve spent considerable time with the Bungie management team to develop the right relationship that promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing. During the extensive conversations that have taken place over the past few months, it is apparent that Bungie’s management is incredibly excited at the prospect of collaborating with the PlayStation Studios teams.
This partnership will bring inspiring new experiences to both the PlayStation community and the community that Bungie has built. We believe that creativity, technology, and collaboration ultimately make for better games and experiences and that’s what matters most to us. At Sony, we are dedicated to entertainment and filling the world with emotion. And we hope you agree there has never been a better time to be a gamer.
This is the third biggest acquisition in gaming for the month of January. Microsoft announced it is acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion and Take-Two Interactive announced it will acquire Zynga in a deal valued at $12.7 billion.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Any other year, this would be a shocking announcement.
Still feels shocking, I kinda always expected Bungie to end up back with Microsoft.
Why? The moment they left Microsoft to make Destiny, they were so closely tied with Sony that my roommate - who is/was an xbox guy - thought Destiny was PS4 exclusive. And my roommate is legitimately the smartest person I know, so that goes to show how skewed the company was at the time.
I don't know, maybe it was some sort of nostalgia on my part. I mean Bungie had their greatest success as a studio while working with Microsoft, so seeing them back together could have been cool. But hey if this works well for both Sony and Bungie, why not.
I feel the same way about Bungie, but it's just a name now. The people who made Halo great are long gone. Think of them has the FPS version of Rare. It's pretty much the same thing.
Which game was a bigger deal for xbox, halo or splinter cell. I never got around halo on the original xbox , but I remember how huge same fisher and xbox was, as though he was the xbox mascot. If I remember correctly, splinter cell was the game to show off the power against the ps2 and was supposed to be the new stealth king overtaking metal gear, which was probably the biggest name at playstation.
It's called marketing deals. Bungie was always known as the Halo/Xbox studio, so it was important for Sony/Bungie to let people know Destiny will be on PS.
Just like MLB The Show 2021 was marketed for Xbox/Game Pass last year. They need people to know it's on Xbox now. Even The Show 2022 will launch on Game Pass this year as well.
You're also ignoring these past acquisitions. Sony has/had deals with another studio/publisher only for Xbox to scoop them up (ie CoD, deathloop, etc.)
MS rejected buying Bungie because of the clause that they wanted to remain independent as a subsidiary aka no exclusives. That and the high asking price over 2billion is what was reported so it appears that those rumors were true.
Industry is really is screwed. This bullcrap needs to stop, stop spending billions on buying properties and open studios and make bloody games. MS and Sony are out billions and neither have added any games to the industry.
You have my agreement
Kind of agree. I feel that they're on a buying spree, but both companies are going to be in the same position market wise. I wonder with all that money they're spending , if we'll end up getting less first party exclusives than prior . I think internal studio's (pre acquistions), will take a hit.
Anyone who believes Jim or Phil or anyone to be honest are muppets. Games not being exclusive (console) is a pipe dream.
It's somewhat ironic that Microsoft now owns Crash and Spyro, and Sony owns the creator of Halo.
This is really good :)
While Xbox has a lock down on FPS and everybody was talking about that, Destiny is the perfect counter to this. 3.6B may be higher than what I would have payed for them. We have no idea what is their other project I think (I believe they are a AAA announced game). This is a really good acquisition and will help the COD going away.
Now, I was expecting Sony to make a bigger move. So imo, this is not the biggest thing they will announce this year (in term of merging/acquisition). I'm expecting somehing bigger coming soon(tm)
Won't bring me much in terms of content since it was already a big studio with multiplatform games on a genre I'm not a fan from start. But seems like a purchase that more or less balance Activision for the loss of identification of CoD or MS deciding to make it exclusive. And good on transparency from Hellen saying Bungie will decide where they release and the games they make.
With it being truly independent it seems like Sony bought Bungir just to be sure not to lose the content.
The IP that would give Sony most trouble if lost is CoD, the rest of Activision barely register and well Blizzard isn't really a console centric titles. So Bungie (not IP) as shooter specialist can keep fans on the platform with the "well we are still going to see major FPS on PS even if it isn't CoD".
it's not meant to be Sony are filling holes in their roster , Ryan wants to expand outside of consoles just like MS but they are using a more traditional formula that suits their positioning to do so , these purchases aren't just tit for tat they are considered this one is more to do with Bungie helping Sony implement more future games using the GAAS model then it is with just owning destiny
And I do hope that means just diversity for the brand instead of moving their philosophy to it. Because I like they being single player games focused in history and don`t like GAAS.
I'm pretty sure Xbox made an offer, probably with a lot more money. Perhaps "independence" was the Cherry that made Bungie choose Playstation.
Opposite actually. It was rumoured that Bungie was approached by Microsoft but the asking price was too high as per the rumor.
Although this rumor was denied by Bungie officially, there might be a possibility that this was indeed true.
https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/14/microsoft-has-tried-to-buy-back-bungie-multiple-times-claim-insiders-13268409/?
I'm going to guess this will be used to negotiate with Microsoft for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation indefinitely.
While Destiny is nowhere near as big as Call of Duty, it is a major game that keeps players engaged long-term. So, certainly Microsoft does not want to lose it from Xbox.
Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that they didn't use the image they used when acquiring other studios? The PS Studios x Company Logo with the text "Welcome to the Family". PlayStation x Bungie makes it seem more like a partnership.
That is because they will be independent and multiplatform also not part of their organic growth
I don't like companies buying other developers and publishers, but after the Activision-Blizzard acquisition I somewhat expected Sony to react. While this wasn't exactly the purchase I expected, I understand why they did it. I have a feeling that them staying multiplatform means they will continue to support existing titles (e.g Destiny 2) on all platforms, while future titles will be PS + PC releases or something to that effect. We'll have to see.
You know these purchases are planned and talked for months if not months in advance right? At most their only change was to agree to announce it now instead of later.
I’m pretty sure that Sony also got wind of Microsoft buying AB months before we did, so this likely is a reaction.
They shouldn't because of the NDAs, but sure it isn't entirely impossible. And sure both sides are likely speculating what the other is likely to buy and for how much to decide how much they are offering to the same company or what else they should buy to level up the field.
Nothing exists in a vacuum, especially now. Sony definitely knew something was up.
It's hard to say but there had been rumours going around that Kotick/ Activision approached MS about a buyout when they saw the share price drop after the news of sexual impropriety and bullying broke and since much of Kotick's accumulated wealth is tied to the share price and any real chance of staying on was scuttled when the extent of his involvement in that culture was revealed makes it quite believable.
After all It would be in his eyes a win win, he not only gets a better exit than the one that was looming but also gets to turn it into a huge windfall, this would also seem to fit with in the 2023 timeline, so while there is a reaction on Sony's part brought about by MS's actions it seems to me to be along the lines of decreasing the timescale while increasing the tempo and scale of their plans for expanding the PlayStation brand rather than them reacting to each specific MS acquisition when they happen .
I see them treating each Sony acquisition in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle with each new acquisition filling in a part of what they need for their vision one piece at a time. but the MS factor has made it become accelerated with that aforementioned increased scale and tempo
The purchase itself may not be a reaction, but this announcement feels a lot like damage control. In a lot of way its a matter of perception. The Activision-Blizzard deal hurt Sony in the eyes of the public and probably investors as well because of the power Microsoft now holds over a number of massive franchises.
This Bungie announcement, as well the additional news that Sony isn't done with acquisitions yet, feels like they're showing everyone that they're not out of the game.
On that I certainly agree.
Makes sense TBH. If Sony is losing CoD after 2023, they will need a good FPS dev to either revive Resistance or Killzone...or make a new IP of their own for their FPS fanbase. It is also possible they could leverage Destiny 3 for future CoD games with MS.
As I have been saying...this is shaping up to be a VERY interesting generation in gaming.
aaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd...... here we go!
I love these stories over the years of studios that are always like "I didn't like being owned by a publisher, I wanna be a free studio!"
years later "here's a billion dollars"
"yeah cool, you guys can own me"
Happened to Respawn, happening to Bungie.
Smart move, cosidering call of duty may one day be xbox only. Sony can use it against them in the future.
Just because Bungie currently is only developing the one game Destiny doesn't mean that's all they'll do. If they could help revive Playstation's other first person shooters like Killzone, Resistance, Socom ect. it would be money well spent. If it's just for the Destiny title alone however it's a pretty expensive acquisition.
Jim and Pete on the phone with Amy Pascal right now...lmao
Organic growth...
Sony themselves said this wasn`t an organic growth purchase, but to increase their reach with more platforms and GAAS model.
Eh?
It’s on!
Interesting move. Destiny 2 is very popular. I can only think this was a reaction to Playstation losing many popular western IPs to MS. Assuming Destiny 3 is now Playstation exclusive.
It's all kinda weird. MS now owns Crash Bandicoot. Sony owns the studio that created Halo and essentially has a Halo clone. Wacky stuff.
I find this ironic given Bungie used to be owned by Microsoft.
And rumors say that MS wanted to buy them back but they didn`t want to be bought and the reason they left was to be independent and not be only doing Halo.
Ugh, more of this.
Someone needs to get a petition going to have Bungie make a new killzone now. It would be so interesting for everything to come full circle with the original "Halo killer" to be worked on by the original studio that made Halo. It would also be a great point for them to pick up the story after where shadowfall left off.
Halo isnt the only game Sony needs to compete with in the FPS genre. MS own a good hand in that department
I don't mean it as in they need to complete with Halo. Back on PS2 killzone was touted as Sony's answer to Halo. I just think Killzone needs some attention as a franchise and with Guerilla knocking it out of the park with Horizon and not likely to return to it, who better to pick up the franchise then the guys that made the game it was originally supposed to be emulating?
Maybe, but Bungie does not really make typical Halo games anymore. They are more focused around GaaS. But who knows.
First Microsoft with Activision/Blizzard and now Sony with Bungie.
I've been saying this for a while now people.
Get ready for all out...
-VIDEOGAME CONSOLE WAR! NINJA APPROVED-
More like VIDEO GAME SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WAR!
Not a fan of this acquisition either, although I suppose at the same time Sony strengthening its position is a good thing... Ugh.
Is this the trend moving forward? I wish Nintendo would start snagging up companies, giving more incentive to build AAA games from the ground up refined for Switch.
Why? Nintendo has always sort of done its own thing, has its own franchises, and isn't really seen as a competitor to the other two. Microsoft has had no problem putting what games it can on Switch, and a lot of Japanese developers put their games on Switch and PS4/5. They are doing fine and will continue to do well for the forseeable future without having to 'compete' with the other two.
The industry is also consolidating to shield itself away from big chinese companies like Tencent...
Is what it is, all industries undergo consolidation once they become mature.
It does mean that there is likely value in owning more than one console this generation.
I’ve always said that Nintendo should just buy Koei Tecmo, since they’re already developing a lot of Nintendo’s games. Platinum would be a good fit. Maybe Nihon Falcom and Nippon Ichi. Honestly, I’d like to see Nintendo go all in on Sega. Sonic and Atlus would be huge wins. Nintendo can’t count on “partnerships” forever when Sony, Microsoft, and Tencent are on the hunt.
Nihon Falcon and Temco Koei do kind a depend on Sony though. Temco's biggest dev is Ninja studio's. They very much enjoy working with Sony. As for Atlus same thing, Persona finally does well on PlayStation kind of a shame to throw that away.
Platinum is very much a logical buy. They should invest heavenly in that studio. Also rather that Nintendo owns them than Tencent. With enough budget and talent they could revive dead more action oriented franchises.
Koei Tecmo’s biggest seller of all time is Hyrule Warriors. With Sony pulling away from Japan, Nintendo is likely to become important to them. It would also give Nintendo strategy gamers and built in RPG series from Gust.
Nioh sold over 6 million units and Hyrule Warriors mostly sold well due to the Hyrule part. Nintendo can only do that so many times. They could make a new FE warriors, but not many Nintendo franchises lend themselves well for a warriors game.
Gust best selling franchise is probably Atelier, which also does quite well outside of Japan. Also the Atelier games are predominantly present on PlayStation and PC, same for the Legend of Heroes games. I don't think buying these studios is something Nintendo is after, they will support them nonetheless and Sony won't buy them either.
Platinum is the studio Nintendo should buy. They have the brandpower and the Devs and they have almost completely moved away from MS and PS.
Note to Sony... ask bungie to reboot Oni.
Holy cow, big move. Especially considering I thought Bungie didn't want to be purchased in the past.
Perhaps retaining some independence in the deal is why they agreed to the purchase now.
It is almost full indenpendence.
This is a good move by Sony. FPS genre is one of the areas Sony is really lacking in, along with social games in general.
With that said, I don't want to hear anything about "growing relationships organically" or whatever buzz words thrown around when compared to Xbox because this acquisition puts it to bed.
Sony themselves said this isn`t an organic growth.
Bungie is a very slow company to make games. It will be a century before a new game appears!
They release half a game per year of content on Destiny, but well that is with a 900 team.
This is a multi media ply by Sony I think. Don’t be surprised to see destiny content that isn’t video games in the near future, and also don’t be surprised if future Sony first party games borrow heavily mechanically and monetization wise from Bungie’s established way of doing things
That goes against what is on the FAQ of bungie. They promissed equal threatment.
Not unique though Polyphony are also an independent subsidiary with their own board consisting of board chairman Yamauchi also Kaz Hirai and two other directors not sure if Kaz is still a director since that position was reserved at the time for the Sony CEO , I remember it well since one of the benefits of Polyphony being a subsidiary was they were unique in that they listed and continually updated the sales of all their games on their website unfortunately that stopped with GT Sport and it's online nature, but this is more about wanting to move beyond just the console audience and using bungies GAAS expertise to help further broaden a segment that they lack in but need to cater for going forward since you can't rely just on single player no matter how good you need all bases covered especially those bases that really suit the Netflix style format of platforms with no home hardware behind them.
Bungie is big enough to tackle multiple projects at once. I’m guess some will be multiplat, and maybe 1 IP will be PS exclusive.
Yah, this is just normal at this point. They will never say that they are going exclusive and piss off current communities :) Future games will be exclusives (Play Station and PC). And this is fine and expected. Right now, anything you see is just some "blah blah" before to close the deal :)
EDIT: Also at this point, it would not be very smart from Sony to announce that they are going to make Bungie games exclusives right away... Or that talk with Microsoft about COD exclusivity, will be over (I think it will be over anyway, but Sony needs to still try)
"Q: Bungie has future games in development, will they now become PlayStation exclusives?
A: No. We want the worlds we are creating to extend to anywhere people play games. We will continue to be self-published, creatively independent, and we will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community. "
This is as black and white as it gets.
This means nothing lol. First, games can be on PC which make them multi-platform. Second, "games in dev." can mean a lot... And any "future" games may not have been 'in dev' right now. You do not pay 3.6B to have your games on other platforms.
Also, at this point Sony cannot really say anything at the risk of Microsoft completly shutting down any talk about COD. Future Bungie AAA "not in dev" are going to be exclusives.
Better to have bungie games go big multiplatform, incase microsoft pulls out a " xbox only" on a big activision game.
They also say they want to make it available wherever possible.
indeed, this sounds "kinda strange"!? i mean, sure, Playstatio and PC sounds right, but then:
"...Bungie will remain a multiplatform studio and will have an option to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play."
Sounds like Xbox will still have Bungie games.
They will.
https://twitter.com/alsowoodie/status/1488214605365055488?t=EP-6GvDyABmfccO7FNxeVw&s=19
They are very explicit here that all current and future bungie products will be fully multi platform, not just PS and PC
but that's the thing... "just PS and PC" is already multi platform.
But yeah, i also think we are going to see Bungie on Xbox.
Play Station and PC = Multiplaform :)
Read the tweet.
“I play destiny on Xbox/Steam/Stadia, will my platform be supported?”
Bungie: “Yes”
They called Xbox and Stadia out by name
Yes, this about Destiny... I'm talking about future games :)
Next AAA from Bungie is Play Station and PC exclusive, I'm 100% sure of that :)
This is like Microsoft with Bethesda/AB, current games will stay. Future games, will be exclusives. Simple as that, no reason to acquire a company if not. And in Bungie case, 3.6B is a really over-priced (for 1 IP basically), so unless they have plan for exclusivity for their next AAA (which is rumored already), there is no real point of buying them
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-31-playstation-bungie-will-considerably-accelerate-our-journey-with-multiplatform-live-service-games
“ > In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says that Destiny 2 and future Bungie games will continue to be published on other platforms, including rival consoles.”
Could not be more explicit then this
They won't all be exclusives to one system. I expect fallout and even elder scrolls to release on ps5. If xbox wants to upset the balance of a popular multiplat game, then sony can do that with bungie. But neither is trying to go to war like this. Microsofts ambition if to make gamepass the ultimate service, to have day one exclusives on gamepass across multiple services/devices.
Sony will release destiny and other titles on multiple systems. Think about it, the bigger the ip you own that's multiplat, the harder it will be for competition to try lock the other system out of an already established multiplat game.
I expect more sony aquisitions, and keep most games multiplat.
indeed, i don't think this is a "realy good deal"... i mean, Destiny is great, but 3.6Bi !?
This is a very savvy move for Sony. They bring in one of the most well respected FPS developers in house, and now control one of the most successful service games of all time. Even if Bungie’s future out put will remain fully multi platform (by the way, it will), that experience can cross pollinate with the rest of SIE
Fucking way.
The realities of the game market in the 2020s are rearing their heads.
