The entertainment giant prepares to bring the makers of Halo and Destiny into its hands.
Bungie, the studio that brought great popularity to Microsoft’s Xbox with its legendary Halo series, will soon be joining its former rival, Sony. The announcement comes only two weeks after Microsoft stated that it will be acquiring Activision-Blizzard for nearly $70 billion.
“Sony is buying Bungie, the maker of Destiny — another seismic gaming deal that comes just two weeks after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard. Bungie put Xbox on the map. Now it’s part of PlayStation Studios,” tweeted Bloomberg reporter, Jason Schreier, this morning.
What does this mean for gaming?
One of the biggest issues in the industry is platform exclusivity. In this practice, a company like Sony exclusively launches one of their studio’s new games solely on their own particular console—Playstation, in this case. This means that players on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC and other platforms will not have access to that new game, leaving millions of customers out of luck.
Many Bungie fans may be worried about the possibility of Sony enacting platform exclusivity for the developer’s games; however, Sony is permitting Bungie to publish its games across multiple platforms despite its acquisition, according to Kotaku. This is good news for both casual gamers and vocational gamers alike. Therefore, any new installments that come into the Destiny series—which once earned over $500 million on pre-orders and day one purchases alone—will be released on all three major platforms.
“This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience,” Jim Ryan, CEO and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment, commented. “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.”
The future looks bright for Bungie. After departing from Microsoft, then later leaving its second parent company Activision-Blizzard to become independent, Bungie will now have more resources to glean from.
“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,” said Hermen Hulst, head of Playstation Studios.
“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.”
Sony plans to keep Bungie as an independent subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, providing the studio with the ability to “self-publish and reach players where they choose to play.”
Sony’s new acquisition is one among multiple, with another recent announcement from Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, asserting that the company intends to purchase the social game developer Zynga for $11 billion, according to Reuters.
This year may be setting up to be gaming’s most expensive yet.
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