As Microsoft continues to buy up studios across the industry, Sony isn't far behind, as they have their own acquisition to announce. Bungie, known for developing the Halo series and more recently, Destiny, will be joining the PlayStation family. Sony purchased the team in a deal valued at $3.6 billion. While it may not be as staggering as the Activision deal that Microsoft made, it shows that these major studio buyouts won't be stopping any time soon.

Originally, Bungie started out as an independent developer, and would go on to be purchased by Microsoft in 2000, where they created Halo: Combat Evolved. They would stay with Microsoft until the year 2007, when they split and became their own private company. After that, Bungie signed a contract with Activision that lead to Destiny and Destiny 2.

Sony has prefaced the deal with the fact that Bungie, despite the acquisition, will remain an independent studio and publisher, and will continue to work on multi platform releases.

“I am absolutely thrilled to announce a new member will be joining the PlayStation family!

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.“

Source

 

[Stone_Wings]

Not really. One sold for 68.7B, one sold for a twentieth of that.

I'd say you thinking they're subjective is actually the subjective part.

I'd say the larger picture went completely over your head. Microsofts track record for even doing much of anything with the studios they purchase is not a good one. Sony's on the other hand.... yeah. And like someone else pointed out, Sony got what they wanted for half the price.

I'd also say that you need to read up on the definition of subjective because, you know, the comment in question was literally subjective.

 

[Viri]

Take that MS chuds! If you want to see Halo continue to be on Xbox, you won't steal COD from Sony!@

Spoiler

No, but seriously, all this 1st party companies buying third party companies is cancer

 

[nikeymikey]

Take that MS chuds! If you want to see Halo continue to be on Xbox, you won't steal COD from Sony!@

Spoiler

No, but seriously, all this 1st party companies buying third party companies is cancer

Errr Bungie don’t own halo, MS do…. As stated many times in this thread already.
As someone else previously said it’s more likely that Sony (who do actually love an exclusive) will make Destiny a PS exclusive rather than MS doi g it with COD. COD is guaranteed big money for MS a every year so why would they stop selling on PS?

 

[leon315]

Me initially: Omg Sony bought Halo?!??!

Me realizing Bungie gave Halo away years ago and haven't done much since: oh, neat I guess.



Feels like Sony is a jealous ex and started dating Microsoft's ex to get back at Microsoft for getting a hot new wife

Definitely better love-hate drama than Twilight!

 

[leon315]

They're gaining Destiny 2 and one of the best FPS studios of all time

the number one FPS is still Activision's COD tho!

 

[DarthMotzkus]

What a tendentious title, Halo is not Bungie's IP anymore. And yes, sony IS far behind. A 3 billion acquisition is FAR BEHIND of the Zenimax and Activision-Blizzard-King deals. C'mon, more information, less fanboyzation.

 

[p1ngpong]

I very much doubt that Destiny will become a Sony exclusive, likely I can see Sony leaving that part of Bungie alone and keeping it multiplatform. It would be silly to lose all that revenue, especially from the PC end of it.

I can see Bungie being involved in developing other IPs for Sony with their FPS expertise. I hated the first Destiny but love 2 but would really like to see Bungie get involved in a more story driven single player FPS again instead of a FPS MMO.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

What a tendentious title, Halo is not Bungie's IP anymore. And yes, sony IS far behind. A 3 billion acquisition is FAR BEHIND of the Zenimax and Activision-Blizzard-King deals. C'mon, more information, less fanboyzation.

Yeah but in the world of journalism its about head turning clicks.

Plus lets be honest here, regardless of Destiny's popularity more people know Bungie for making Halo originally than anything else in their portfolio. Even if that information is no longer true to the current holders of the IP. Hell most people probably do not even acknowledge the fact that the first Halo was meant to be an Apple only game before MS came on in and changed that picture up fast.

I very much doubt that Destiny will become a Sony exclusive, likely I can see Sony leaving that part of Bungie alone and keeping it multiplatform. It would be silly to lose all that revenue, especially from the PC end of it.

I can see Bungie being involved in developing other IPs for Sony with their FPS expertise. I hated the first Destiny but love 2 but would really like to see Bungie get involved in a more story driven single player FPS again instead of a FPS MMO.

It would be the smart move, but Sony is not always known for making smart moves. Plus again lets be honest here this acquisition is more reactionary than planned. I doubt Sony was eyeing this company in any considerable way long before MS even took Zenimax let alone ActiBliz. This is Sony trying to react in a way that makes them seem willing to keep up with the fight, but in a way that if this was an arms race Microsoft has the Nuclear Football while Sony is still figuring out how firearms work.

 

[Bryon15]

With Sony and Microsoft buying up studios left and right, I'm really starting to worry about Nintendo. They're getting left behind, and losing third party support. Imagine if Sony or Microsoft bought capcom, or square-enix, or Sega, or platinum games, or (omg) bandai-namco?? It would be devastating to Nintendo if they were locked out from any of these companies.

 

[FAST6191]

This is monopoly!

I am playing as the car.

So, the whole taking toys from each other comparison is funny and all, but what does it say about the future of gaming that so many of the big publishers are merging into cyberpunk-tier mega corporations?

Happens all the time. They buy each other up rather than making something good. Go pop as their budgets balloon for no good reason. The mid tiers that would have been their food had the previous lived another 5 years then blow up to the next big boys, maybe wear the skin of a fallen big boy to fool the grandmas, and cycle repeats. Small devs throughout it all come and go, occasionally you get one that has read about game theory, project management and storytelling that make something good and get swallowed up, occasionally leaping directly to mid tier (usually by being in a country nobody can be bothered to deal with or releasing on PC where you can scale massively with minimal effort and people tripping you up) but usually fart out a middle of the road title because they have to work under the thumb of corporate before imploding themselves (there is a reason buyout is synonymous with studio killer).

With Sony and Microsoft buying up studios left and right, I'm really starting to worry about Nintendo. They're getting left behind, and losing third party support. Imagine if Sony or Microsoft bought capcom, or square-enix, or Sega, or platinum games, or (omg) bandai-namco?? It would be devastating to Nintendo if they were locked out from any of these companies.

They lost third party support with the N64 and 3ds from where I sit. Still have plenty willing to lap up the scraps they put out two or three times a year.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

With Sony and Microsoft buying up studios left and right, I'm really starting to worry about Nintendo. They're getting left behind, and losing third party support. Imagine if Sony or Microsoft bought capcom, or square-enix, or Sega, or platinum games, or (omg) bandai-namco?? It would be devastating to Nintendo if they were locked out from any of these companies.

For starters I would not worry about Nintendo as much as you think you should, especially since their third party support has always never been their main reason to buy their hardware. In fact Third Party support for Nintendo has always been shit since around the late N64/GC days when Devs jumped ship over to Sony when Nintendo was still forcing everyone to stay on carts. The Mini discs also did not help devs stay around as it was forcing less data per disc in a market where both MS and Sony were pushing out standard media format support that had more data hand over fist in terms of storage.

Nintendo has always survived on their own games and little else. As for those Japanese studios? Sony has a better chance snatching them up than MS does since there would be more red tape in the acquisition of a foreign/Japanese company than one in your own back yard. Sony might in fact have some issues with Bungie with that being said as well. Capcom and Platinum would probably not fall in line for MS either given they have bad blood with previous partnerships falling apart. (Dead Rising 4 and of course Scalebound). As for Bandai? I do not think MS would care about taking them in too much as their IP's extend way more than their games have. It would be too much of an excess.

Sega has the only outright potential of being bought out, and I feel that MS and Nintendo will probably strategize something to keep them away from Sony since Sega has had more impact on those platforms than ever on Sony's. MS and Nintendo seem to be getting very friendly now as of the later years with MS sharing IP's over to Nintendo.

 

[HellGhast]

Some excellent IP’s are sitting untapped in Bungie’s vault - I, for one, would love to see a new Oni or Myth game. Destiny in and out of itself has the potential for a never-ending revenue stream. Marathon could make a come-back too, not to mention that as skilled developers Bungie could try their hands at one of Sony’s IP’s - KillZone is the first thing that comes to mind.

Yeah Sony has some very good ips lying idle like KillZone and Resistance Fall of Man. Insomniac has not released a Resistance in 11 years while Guerilla has not released a KillZowned in 9 years, such a waste.

With a bigger budget from Sony, Bungie could definitely go into multi development mode and make KillZowned or Resistance alongside whatever Destiny project they are working on, hear that Sony.

Open world KillZone and Resistance anyone? Or just stick to linear.

 

[Glyptofane]

I would have preferred for Sony to just keep Japan Studio intact.

 

[grabman]

Me initially: Omg Sony bought Halo?!??!

Me realizing Bungie gave Halo away years ago and haven't done much since: oh, neat I guess.



Feels like Sony is a jealous ex and started dating Microsoft's ex to get back at Microsoft for getting a hot new wife

you just described jeff jarrett and karen angle

my world!

lol but seriously folks. I know that bungie does have some really nice i guess engines and devs and yadda yadda. But at this price anyone else thinking this is a sweetheart of a deal for bungie?

is there some sort of ip they got brewing i just don’t know about?

also who else can sony even get? i mean i am a sony fan (play xbox too just prefer sony) and i am trying to think here. Did they just bet the farm on bungie? I just don’t see that panning out.

 

[64bitmodels]

Microsofts track record for even doing much of anything with the studios they purchase is not a good one.

ehh i wouldnt say so-
playground games- has been Microsoft owned since 2018, and is responsible for Forza horizon 4 and 5 since then
ninja theory- acquired in 2018, is at work at making hellblade 2
Bethesda- Acquired in 2021, is currently working on starfield,
Mojang- acquired in 2014, is working on Minecraft (and frankly, the game's been better since for it)
Obsidian- Acquired in 2018, is working on avowed
Double Fine- Acquired in 2019, is responsible for Psychonauts 2 (which was actually improved from the acquisition thanks to MS's funding allowing them to put in content that was initially going to be cut)
I can understand that the rare acquisition sucks, but this misconception that MS does absolutely nothing with their studios other than add their games to gamepass is kind of dumb

 

[ChibiMofo]

nintendo doesn't give a shit about aquiring studios they know all they need to do is keep making the same mario games over and over and the nintenSHEEP will line up in droves to buy them

Maybe you should stop playing all those shitty "me too" copycat FPS games on Xbox/PS and find out why the Nintensheep keep buying new Mario games over and over.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

ehh i wouldnt say so-
playground games- has been Microsoft owned since 2018, and is responsible for Forza horizon 4 and 5 since then
ninja theory- acquired in 2018, is at work at making hellblade 2
Bethesda- Acquired in 2021, is currently working on starfield,
Mojang- acquired in 2014, is working on Minecraft (and frankly, the game's been better since for it)
Obsidian- Acquired in 2018, is working on avowed
Double Fine- Acquired in 2019, is responsible for Psychonauts 2 (which was actually improved from the acquisition thanks to MS's funding allowing them to put in content that was initially going to be cut)
I can understand that the rare acquisition sucks, but this misconception that MS does absolutely nothing with their studios other than add their games to gamepass is kind of dumb

When MS took on Rare they were trying to jump at something that had immense potential at the time but also they did not have any direction as to what to do with them since the IP's they were best known for (outside of Banjo and perfect dark to a lesser extent) were tied up with other companies. Plus with them owning Bungie at the time and their success with Halo it was probably not a big need for them to come out with another FPS game, and the Banjo game they did get was one that no one had asked for, and was definitely not MS's fault for how that game turned out. Rare was just not properly utilized and was purchased more for reaction than practicality most likely. Ultimately that said they would end up trying to utilize them later on with the scrapped Project Bean project, with Rare Replay, and even working with Nintendo in bringing Banjo back to the Switch via Smash Bros and N64 Online Classics.

It seems that MS has grasped the concept of what to do with studios more since those days and are trying to make up for it. That said these acquisitions seem less of a hostile takeover and more of an act of mercy given how these studios were more infamous for their shit quality in recent times than they have been famous for their games themselves. If MS is trying to put the best foot forward in respecting these IP's by making sure they are being released proper and not half baked pieces of shit to meet quarterly deadlines then we will see a better outcome from these games properties and not the constant disappointments that we have become too familiar with in recent years.

After all, if the quality ends up being the same shit or worse than it was before, it will make MS look like shit. Right now they need all the good press they can get with their actions, so the desire to do good with these studios is high.

Maybe you should stop playing all those shitty "me too" copycat FPS games on Xbox/PS and find out why the Nintensheep keep buying new Mario games over and over.

Not playing sides here, but the New SMB series went downhill quick for Nintendo fans, also the latest entry of them milking Mario was not met with love from those same fans. That said Mario Odyssey was probably the most enjoyable Mario game since 64/64DS.

 

[Mago6246]

Xbox: FUCK YOU PLAYSTATION WE'RE TAKING COD, CRASH AND SPYRO FROM YOU
Playstation: FUCK YOU XBOX WE'RE TAKING THE OG HALO DEVS AND DESTINY FROM YOU

How can you even compare Bungie with Activision? LOL

 

[nikeymikey]

Maybe you should stop playing all those shitty "me too" copycat FPS games on Xbox/PS and find out why the Nintensheep keep buying new Mario games over and over.

Mario has been shit since Odyssey and even that didn't reach the heights of previous gen titles. Personally I think the Switch is the WORST NINTENDO CONSOLE EVER (not including the VB) and I've been a Nintendo fan since '86!!

On topic.. This isn't the end of the acquisitions by a long shot....

 

[Huneter]

Me realizing Bungie gave Halo away years ago and haven't done much since: oh, neat I guess.

Well they made Destiny and they are still releasing DLC for Destiny 2 + Destiny 2 has quite a loyal fan base (much like halo)