It looks like Sony has plans to acquire Bungie, the studio behind the hit MMO Destiny, in a deal worth $3.6 billion. So Bungie will join the Sony Interactive Entertainment family, which includes Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Bluepoint Games and a handful of other prominent studios. So it is a great purchase.
Bungie is positioning the acquisition as the start of a new era for the company, where they can focus on global multimedia entertainment, not exclusively games. Bungie will retain creative control over the franchises and continue to develop for multiple platforms other than PlayStation, according to a blog post by CEO Pete Parsons.
“We will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games,” he said. “We will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community. Our games will continue to be where our community is, wherever they choose to play.”
The deal comes after news that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Clearly, massive companies including Microsoft, Sony and others are in the process of sweeping up as many studios as they can in a battle for exclusives and big titles. As console makers, Sony and Microsoft have a lot of power in the negotiations, with built-in audiences of millions on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
These deals give the acquired studios financial stability, production support and wide-reaching marketing plans, though they’ll have to operate within a corporate ecosystem and potentially tie their games to specific platforms though.
Source Engadget
Image Credit Bungie