Sony is buying Bungie for $3.6 billion

[Abu Antar]

Sony stock trading was halted earlier in the day.

Turns out that they bought Bungie.

 

[ADL]

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (“SIE”) announced today that it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire Bungie, Inc. (“Bungie”), a premier independent videogame developer and long-time partner of SIE that has created some of the videogame industry’s most highly-acclaimed franchises, including Halo and Destiny. This acquisition will give SIE access to Bungie’s world-class approach to live game services and technology expertise, furthering SIE’s vision to reach billions of players. Bungie will continue to operate independently, maintaining the ability to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play.

Based in Bellevue, WA and with more than 900 employees, Bungie is renowned for creating unforgettable, evolving worlds centered around high-quality gameplay experiences that foster meaningful player connections. Currently, the team is focused on the long-term development of the hugely successful Destiny 2, expanding the Destiny universe, and creating entirely new worlds in future IP. The total consideration of this transaction is 3.6 billion U.S. dollars, inclusive of purchase price and committed employee incentives, and is subject to customary working capital and other adjustments.

“Bungie has created and continues to evolve some of the world’s most beloved videogame franchises and, by aligning its values with people’s desire to share gameplay experiences, they bring together millions of people around the world,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Group Corporation. “As part of our Purpose to ‘fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology’, we will utilize the Sony Group’s diverse array of entertainment and technology assets to support further evolution of Bungie and its ability to create iconic worlds across multiple platforms and media.”

“We’ve had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO, SIE. “This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience. 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. Like Bungie, our community is core to PlayStation’s DNA, and our shared passion for the gamer and building the best place to play will now evolve even further.”

“In SIE, we have found a partner that fully supports us and wants to accelerate our vision of creating meaningful entertainment experiences that span generations, all while valuing the creative independence that is the heartbeat of Bungie,” said Pete Parsons, CEO and Chairman, Bungie. “We will continue pursuing our vision of one, unified Bungie community, building games that value our community and meet them wherever and however they choose to play. Both Bungie and SIE believe that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IP will become. Our original universes have immense potential and, with SIE’s support, we will propel Bungie into becoming a global multi-media entertainment company dedicated to delivering on our creative vision.”

Post-acquisition, Bungie will be an independent subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment and run by its Board of Directors chaired by Pete Parsons and Bungie’s current management team. The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...eading-Independent-Videogame-Developer-Bungie

Wonder what this means for the MMO they're making with NetEase.

Doesn't appear to affect Destiny 2 at all.

 

[Gerrard]

Is this a contest on who makes the dumbest purchase?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

All of this recent movement look like preemptive strike to prevent Bezos or Tim Cuck from entering the AAA gaming space.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

What's the point of buying them and still retain Xbox support?

 

[Fedora Master]

Oh no what could this mean for such important franchises such as Halo?

(Who cares?)

 

[ADL]

What's the point of buying them and still retain Xbox support?

Seems like a defensive move to ensure current and future Bungie properties would continue to be on their platform. Also it keeps it out of reach for Amazon and Apple.

Is this a contest on who makes the dumbest purchase?

We'll see soon.

 

[Dexter]

Oh no what could this mean for such important franchises such as Halo?

(Who cares?)

They haven't developed a Halo since 2010 and Microsoft owns that IP. They somehow managed to get free from Microsoft's grasp and entered a 10 year Exclusive publishing contract with Activision not soon after, under which they developed Destiny as their own IP. It wasn't nearly successful enough for Activision, so they let them out of it in 2019 and let them keep Destiny, which is when Destiny 2 moved from Battle.Net to Steam: https://www.wowhead.com/news/destiny-franchise-to-leave-activision-blizzard-289663 They haven't released anything else since.

Would you have been able to do those things under Activision?

Deej: I don't know. I think we need to dispel the notion Activision was some prohibitive overlord that wasn't letting us do awesome things. We launched this franchise with Activision, naturally and over the course of time we both decided we had different goals for what we wanted it to be, so we both went our separate ways. It was amicable, and here we are making this game on our own, doing what we think we need to do to make it awesome.

Seems rather baffling.

 

[CommunityGoat]

Controversial juices flowing.

 

[Aemar]

All of this recent movement look like preemptive strike to prevent Bezos from buying Golden Era Games.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Microsoft has everything they want from Bungie, why buy a mediocre company?

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Corporatism is eating the last businesses alive.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This is even more absurd than the actiblizz buyout. At least they arguably have IPs worth something.
What does Bungie have that's worth $3.6 billion? Theoretically, every single developer could just quit tomorrow, it's not like you're buying their slave contracts.

For the record, Bungie hasn't had Halo for a long time.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Destiny 2

 

[Thac0]

They are probably afraid of being locked out of the multiplayer dudebro shooter market with the loss of CoD, as they have no own brand they can hold against that. Battlefield is a joke atm, so they did not go for EA (yet), they probably want Bungie to make them a competent CoD rival.

 

[Lutte]

At first I thought this thread was a random troll thread. Bungie, as others said, doesn't even own halo. So that leaves.. destiny? do they have blackmail on Sony execs? Destiny isn't even worth the toilet paper I used to wipe my arse.

afraid of being locked out of the multiplayer dudebro shooter market with the loss of CoD,

They said the decision had been made before that happened. Also, I don't think Bungie would be any more successful in capturing the CoD fanbase than Sony's own devs like the people who made Killzone would.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Destiny fans are crackheads, it's a couple of million retards locked in to buying skins and shit.

 

[Jaedar]

For the record, Bungie hasn't had Halo for a long time.

This is true, but the ability to say "we own the devs who made Halo" must surely count as a middle finger towards microsoft.

How does the halo fanbase feel about the non-bungie stuff anway? Are they fine with it? Do they feel they aren't "true" sequels? Or are they all just dudebro enough to think microsoft made all the halos?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For the record, Bungie hasn't had Halo for a long time.

This is true, but the ability to say "we own the devs who made Halo" must surely count as a middle finger towards microsoft.

How does the halo fanbase feel about the non-bungie stuff anway? Are they fine with it? Do they feel they aren't "true" sequels? Or are they all just dudebro enough to think microsoft made all the halos?

considering halo infinite was immediately 12/10 GOTYAY I'm going to assume microsoft won't be crying

 

[ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB]

Soon only Microsoft, Sony and EA will be left.

It will be an epic battle to the death.

 

[Jaedar]

Soon only Microsoft, Sony and EA will be left.

EA is worth a lot less than actiblizz was (almost half it looks like). Their reaping may be upon us.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Wow, now PS5 may have its first decent exclusive - Myth 4.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I don't see a suitor with deep enough pockets for EA. Too big for Sony unless they spin off Playstation and it becomes a merger. Google and Meta are mobile first companies. Amazon - their gaming efforts make no sense to me. Why waste money on making games, when you just can let thots do the work and reap taxes? Tencent - deal would be blocked.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Wow, now PS5 may have its first decent exclusive - Myth 4.

Myth is owned by Take-Two.
I believe they do however still own Marathon.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Because wasting money is brute forcing ROI. Games, NFT's, TV series about some hero's sidekick, just anything. Not wages though. That doesn't help the shareholders.