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

 

[Bladexdsl]

Bungie has now been owned by two different platform owners. So when does Nintendo get a turn at them? I'm thinking 2028.

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

 

[Zkajavier]

Bungie thought they could handle Destiny 2 by themselves, LOL. Look at what came of that game.

Well, since these are the little few strings Sony could pull, I hope they focus hard on these games, it may be for the best.

 

[dragonblood9999]

Not like bungie are doing any good anyway. Destiny 2 has become a piss poor excuse of a game since activision left ( Die hard fan since alpha)

Imo destiny 2 was never as good as the 1st game. I hate the fact that I was forced to do pvp for any exotic quest, it was always kill 5000 guardians for 10 points when you need 250 point and if you die once you lose all the points you get.

Also the fact I never could get any good equipment from prime engrams or drops. Like if I have a 1200 helmet and I had 1150 arms, it would always give me helmets. Also I have over 1000 hours playing this game and always say I'm not getting the new dlc, that doesn't really give new things, I still get it.

 

[sley]

The real talents of Bungie left long ago, the name isn't as impactful as it was when Destiny was announced.

 

[the_randomizer]

Seeing as they haven't made any noteworthy IPs in some time, is anything of value really lost?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Is this some kind of war or they just flexing what they got? Sony and Microsoft I mean.

So am I supposed to expect a "Your move now Xbox" kind of response or "Is that the best you got sony?"

 

[64bitmodels]

Seeing as they haven't made any noteworthy IPs in some time, is anything of value really lost?

we could get killzone and/or resistance back!

 

[GoldenBullet]

But when was the last time Bungie made a good game?

 

[blue-moon]

smart move by sony to pick up a recognized fps dev if they do end up losing call of duty, maybe we could see a bungie take on the kill zone franchise

 

[MikaDubbz]

Seems like a direct reaction to Microsoft's acquisitions these days. Like, "Oh yeah? Well we'll just buy the studio that created your precious Halo. How do ya like that?"

Real talk though, it does seem a bit concerning that the idea of the third party dev may disappear outside of the indie devs. How long before EA, Take Two/Rockstar, Ubisoft, SEGA, Capcom, Namco, Konami, etc. all are owned by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo?

 

[Dr_Faustus]

Seems like a direct reaction to Microsoft's acquisitions these days. Like, "Oh yeah? Well we'll just buy the studio that created your precious Halo. How do ya like that?"

Real talk though, it does seem a bit concerning that the idea of the third party dev may disappear outside of the indie devs. How long before EA, Take Two/Rockstar, Ubisoft, SEGA, Capcom, Namco, Konami, etc. all are owned by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo?

Honestly speaking if it means shaking things up in the right direction, breaking away from shitty mindsets and throwing out all the bad things that have accumulated in the AAA industry it could be more than beneficial. Hell I would hope that MS would buy Capcom/Konami, but these seem to have more preference towards Sony and have a more realistic chance of being poached by Sony if they want to pull on their big pants.


As for T2? That is probably a price too high for either one of them. GTO is still a moneymaker to this day and if GTA6 ever does come out in the next few years chances are it will still make golden dollars on any platform it releases on. They will likely remain independent because of this.

Spoiler

Or in the worst possible case T2 gets bought up by Facebook and will require everyone to have a Facebook gaming account to use.

 

[tpax]

Really bad news. One less independent studio. It's hard to like the video game industry nowdays.

 

[tech3475]

Why does this just feel like Sony getting revenge for buying Crash and Spyro?

 

[Dr_Faustus]

we could get killzone and/or resistance back!

smart move by sony to pick up a recognized fps dev if they do end up losing call of duty, maybe we could see a bungie take on the kill zone franchise

Its something one would hope in this case, but given Sony's focus to deliver "cinematic gaming experiences" in the same vein as Uncharted and TLOU I do not have much hope of this being much of the case with FPS games in their library being a priority in the future unless they are taking radical shifts, in which case if they are that's fantastic!


That being said, speaking of "cinematic gaming experiences" I wonder if Sony has tried to eye up Quantic Dream yet for acquisition.

 

[Wolfy]

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

Same thoughts, doesn't really matter to me unless it was affecting Halo since I like being able to play it on PC and Xbox and would rather not have it become some stupid exclusivity deal.

 

[Noctosphere]

Unironically the most hilarious shit i've seen today.

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
Xbox: FUCK YOU PLAYSTATION
Playstation: FUCK YOU XBOX

We're living in the strangest timeline

Meanwhile...
Nintendo : Yes.

 

[Foxi4]

A new Oni would be pretty cool but rather problematic due to the IP being owned by Rockstar/Take 2.

The Oni IP was originally owned by Bungie West. A sequel was being developed by Angel Studio, immediately prior to acquisition by Rockstar and the studio’s restructuring into Rockstar San Diego. The sequel was supposed to be published by Take Two, but that never came to fruition. It’s unclear to me who actually owns it at this point - I’d have to look into the details of the acquisition.

EDIT: It appears that the rights to ONI are currently in the hands of Take Two. They’ve acquired them as a part of the deal with Microsoft struck at the time of Halo’s development.

 

[nikeymikey]

This is lolz... Destiny got boring as soon as it became a massive grind to get anywhere. Never played the second one due to that fact.
Have a strange feeling MS will flash the cash again shortly..... EA are ripe for the picking... wouldn't be a bad thing imo.

Still feels like MS has he upper hand in the studio war for now. Actiblizz trumps Bungie....

 

[mathew77]

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're GODDAMN right.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Feels like Sony is a bit desperate by making this move. They're not, but feels like it.