Rumor: Microsoft and Bungie Discussed Potential Acquisition Before Sony Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 February 2022 / 3,178 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment this week announced it is acquiring Destiny developer, Bungie, for $3.6 billion. However, it appears Bungie at one point was in talks with Microsoft before the Sony deal went down.
Insider Nate the Hate (AKA Direct-Feed Games) via Twitter said Microsoft and Bungie had on and off talks for a possible acquisition for a couple of years. However, discussions stalled in 2020 due to Bungie wanting around $2 billion and to retain its independence. That asking price was too high for Microsoft at the time.
$2 billion is a decent amount lower than the $3.6 billion Sony ended up paying. In Sony's deal Bungie will remain "an independent subsidiary" and will remain a multiplatform studio and will have an option "to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play."
Microsoft & Bungie have had talks on & off for a couple of years.
— Direct-Feed Games (@DirectFeedGames) February 1, 2022
Back in 2020, talks stalled between the two due to Bungie wanting in the area of $2bn and to retain independence.
That request paired with the asking price was too high for MS, at the time.
Enter Sony... https://t.co/pSqxqN1C1I
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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Well Bungie bought itself out of MS's grasp. Why would they go back to MS unless they got the guarantees they wanted?
That's fair enough for sure. Though it sounds like Microsoft is way better to work for now than it was in the 360-era.
But the wildcard here for me is that Bungie wants to diversify into non-gaming media, and that's probably of much greater interest to Sony (which owns movie studios, TV studios, is into music publishing, etc.) than Microsoft.
Do we really need a rumor to tell us this? Microsoft is on a buying spree, I would have been surprised if they hadn't talked to Bungie.
If everything stays the same for Bungie after the deal, then why should Sony pay a lot of money? What's the deal then?
Their statements since the purchase basically say that they bought Bungie for the expertise. If you think about it, Sony probably has the least expertise of all of the major publishers in terms of live service games. So, they needed to do something if they wanted to go down that road. Bungie has one of the most successful live service games ongoing, so they get that property, plus all of the expertise that Bungie has gained over the last decade working on Destiny.
Well this makes me think that MS only bids what they think something is valued at, and not a dime higher. Very, very interesting that MS and Sony had different valuation reports on Bungie. Sony values Bungie at 180% what MS valued it at only a yeari-sh before.
Something is off here.
The rumor said those talks took place over a couple of years. Valuations are much higher now than they were years and months ago. In the case of Bungie, if they now have a fairly fleshed out second IP in production, that would also be a lot more valuable than that same IP would have been in pre-production a couple of years ago.
Really? That guy who's making Bungie money nearly duped MS real good.
So Bungie got Sony to pony up $1.5 billion more than Microsoft was willing, and Microsoft had already passed on the much cheaper offer because they knew that Bungie would still release games on XBox platforms anyway due to their independence clause. That's a coup for Bungie and Microsoft if true. Actually, Bungie might have been using the talks with Microsoft to push Sony to the far higher offer. Negotiations 101.
And that would certainly tarnish their relationship so not really a smart move.
The deal makes sense for Sony and Bungie , Sony want to expand beyond the console space and GAAS is one area they need and are lacking in, also having a studio being run as a subsidiary isn't new Polyphony is set up that way and the publishing and multiplatform aspect doesn't worry them since it fits in with their vision to expand beyond just their platform , it also helps with ROI and isn't like they are losing a first party exclusive to do so , on MS side I agree the publishing part didn't fit in with their game pass model .
As to the money paid studio value has shot up due to the buy out frenzy since then not just from MS and Sony but Embracer group and 10cent , so it would be fair to say that Sony just paid that extra value that anyone else wanting to buy them in the present day climate including MS would have had to factor in .
Yeah, I don't buy this rumor.
Of course you don't :) Doh ;)
The thing is that the conditions that Sony acquired Bungie under actually confirms the rumors, the owning them but Staying fully Independent is literally listed as one of the reasons why MS didn’t buy them and that news came way before Sony ever acquired them.
A rumor for a talk 1 or 2 year ago by coincidence coming at the moment the Sony deal was made while no other purchase have really leaked on all the other cases? You want to believe it because that way dumb Sony took the trash that MS didn`t want while paying double and not getting exclusiviness.
Zenimax doesn't have the autonomy that Sony granted Bungie for self publish and keep making all their games multiplatform.
I'm pretty sure Zenimax can still publish? Not certain.
Also, when I say autonomy, and what I think is generally meant when people use that word, is that the Zenimax studios can still make games the way they want to make them. I don't think Phil is going to tell them how to make Fallout 5, Elder Scrolls 6, Doom 3, etc.
I've read on multiple occasions how the leaders of some of these teams have had just as much authority over their ip as.before, like Psychonauts, they just don't have to fundraise anymore. Pretty certain Bungie would have had the same freedom if they came to MS to make the games they want to make.
MS already said several of the titles will be exclusive to Xbox and PC, so Zenimax doesn't have a choice in that over MS. Bungie retained that from Sony per their answers.
All Sony studios have full autonomy on the titles they want to make, and seems most MS studios also have that. So what is being said here is very different from that.
The idea that Zenimax is completely independent is a polite fiction that will be maintained as long as things are going well. When it really comes down to it, if Phil or Satya tell Todd to do something, Todd will have the choice of either obeying Phil or Satya, or submitting his resignation. Same thing with Bungie.
There is a lot of power in figureheads amongst the masses. Phil firing the leadership of Zenimax would be a pr disaster. Todd basically has that job until either a scandal breaks or the fans demand for his removal due to their games being bad. If Phil fired Todd right now, a bunch of people would protest by not getting those games going forward or subscribing to Gamepass. MS absolutely wants to keep Zenimax fans happy.
I agree but this is Bungie so their history suggests that they may have a clause written in the purchase contract regarding publishing and autonomy, still they are owned and with ownership comes some degree of control, but looking at it from outside Bungie seems to have been purchased primarily for it's GAAS expertise and while no small thing and still very important especially concerning present revenue destiny by itself seems to be secondary in Sony's future plans for Bungie.
The way Sony have set up Bungie's corporate structure along with
Sony expanding Bungies role beyond just being a game studio by having them oversee and help other Sony studios make GAAS software seems to me to be something that will aid Bungie in staying it's own master in comparison to the Zenimax studios setup.
I would def. believe that was a big consideration in this deal.
Bungie is probably not big enough to retain independence (esp. compared to other big studios Microsoft has). So it would make sense for this to be a deal breaker.
I don't think I would have spent $2 billion on a company that only has Destiny 2 in the marketplace, has only one other significant IP to its name (Marathon... it lost both Myth and Oni), and wants to diversify into non-gaming media. And I certainly wouldn't have spend $3.6 billion on them. Especially if they're insisting on an unusually high level of independence.
But perhaps I'll be proven wrong. Mojang only had one released product (Minecraft), and another in the works ("Scrolls, whichthat ended up getting cancelled). Yet Microsoft's been able to grow and monetize the bejeezus out of Minecraft, so it was money well spent.
But I think Mojang and Minecraft are more valuable than Destiny, personally. And Bungee's new project is unproven in the marketplace. Is it the next Apex Legends, or the next Anthem? Time will tell.
Given Microsoft’s buying power it makes sense they walked away from that deal. No reason to surrender publishing autonomy to such a small entity when you can just a multiple times larger publisher and not have those same demands
Can anyone say MS would be hurt financially by paying 3.6B to buy Bungie?
