Sony is buying Bungie for $3.6 billion, both companies announced this morning.
While the new acquisition would make Bungie an “independent subsidiary” of Sony, they will be run by a board of directors consisting of their current CEO and chairman Pete Parsons and the rest of the studio’s current management team.
Despite the acquisition, Sony noted Bungie will continue making multiplatform games with the option to “self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play.” The developer is currently still supporting Destiny 2, while also working on a new IP.
This is actually the second time Bungie has been acquired by a larger company, with the original acquisition being Microsoft back in 2000, as they had Bungie develop the original Halo: Combat Evolved for the launch of the Xbox in 2001.
Bungie became independent again after the launch of Halo 3 back in 2007, and went on to produce two more games in the series – Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, prior to signing a 10-year deal with Activision for the development of the Destiny franchise.
“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 SIE president and CEO Jim Ryan.
“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.”
Bungie head Pete Parsons also talked up their goals of making generation-spanning entertainment, while remaining creatively independent.
“Both Bungie and SIE believe that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IP will become,” Parsons said. “Our original universes have immense potential and, with SIE’s support, we will propel Bungie into becoming a global multimedia entertainment company dedicated to delivering on our creative vision.”
The news that Sony is buying Bungie for $3.6 billion comes nearly two weeks since Microsoft announced they’re buying Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion deal.
