Destiny 2 (Image: Bungie)
Sony has acquired Bungie, creators of the Destiny series, for $3.6 billion. The studio will still have independence under Sony, and will be allowed to publish multiplatform games.
President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan, announced the acquisition on the PlayStation Blog, where he stated that the studio will help Sony expand the PlayStation brand.
“Bungie’s world-class expertise in multi-platform development and live game services will help us deliver on our vision of expanding PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers,” he wrote. “Bungie is a great innovator and has developed incredible proprietary tools that will help PlayStation Studios achieve new heights under Hermen Hulst’s leadership.”
The company has confirmed that it plans to launch a brand new IP in 2025, which might have been a factor in Sony’s decision to purchase them. Rumors state that the game might be a character-based shooter, similar to Overwatch, which is now owned by Microsoft.
Ryan also confirmed that Sony is planning on acquiring more studios in the near future, which had increased people’s fears about the consolidation of the video game industry.
And Jim Ryan told me 'We should expect more' when it comes to further PlayStation acquisitions
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) January 31, 2022
Bungie has had a checkered history with acquisitions and partnerships, with Sony being the third company to partner with them.
Bungie was originally established in 1991 and made a few small titles before starting development on Halo, which would end up becoming their claim to fame. Originally they planned to partner with Apple to create the game for Mac computers, before being purchased by Microsoft. They eventually split off to become an independent studio in 2007, before partnering with Activision Blizzard to create the Destiny series. In 2019 Bungie purchased the publishing rights to the series from Activision and became independent again.
No date has been announced for when either party expects the acquisition to be finished. This announcement comes shortly after Microsoft announced that they had acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
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