The gaming content arms race is heating up between Microsoft and Sony. On Tuesday, Sony announced it's acquiring Bungie, the developer behind Destiny 2 and the original Halo games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is paying $3.6 billion for Bungie, according to GamesIndustry.biz, and expects to make more acquisitions down the line. “We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go,” SIE CEO Jim Ryan said in an interview.
The deal for Bungie is much smaller than Microsoft’s $68.7 billion recently announced plan to buy Activision Blizzard, the developer behind the WarCraft, Call of Duty, and Diablo franchises. Nevertheless, Sony is preparing to pour resources into Bungie to help it expand.
“With SIE's support, the most immediate change you will see is an acceleration in hiring talent across the entire studio to support our ambitious vision,” Bungie CEO Pete Parsons wrote in a blog post. That ambitious vision includes developing new “iconic franchises.”
But despite the merger, Bungie itself will still create and publish games independently from Sony, according to Parsons. “Today, Bungie begins our journey to become a global multi-media entertainment company,” he added.
It’s tempting to view the acquisition as Sony's response to Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard. However, the company tells GamesIndustry.biz the deal for Bungie had been in the works for months. "This had nothing to do with industry consolidation. This had everything to do with a shared vision and how we could do things better together," said SIE CEO Jim Ryan.
Still, the deal is pretty ironic given that Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000 while the studio was developing the first Halo. Bungie became independent again in 2007, leaving Microsoft in control of the Halo franchise, which has long been a flagship property for the Xbox platform. But Bungie created a new hit shooter series with Destiny and Destiny 2.
Parsons noted that Sony and Bungie share the goal of creating iconic franchises for fans “across multiple platforms and entertainment mediums.” Meanwhile, Microsoft plans on keeping the Call of Duty franchise on the PlayStation platform even after buying Activision, at least for a while.