Sony buying Bungie for $3.6bn

Sony has today announced it will buy Destiny maker Bungie for $3.6bn.

The Destiny franchise and other future games from Bungie will remain multiplatform, the developer has said.

Following the deal's completion, Bungie will be a part of Sony Worldwide Studios which can "self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play", GamesIndustry.biz reported.

"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," Sony boss Jim Ryan said.

"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 a blog post on the buyout, Bungie said the deal would not impact the creative plan for Destiny through the end of its current saga (due in 2024), and that upcoming expansion The Witch Queen would not contain any platform exclusives. Destiny 2 features such as cross-save, cross-play and companion apps will also be unaffected.

Beyond Destiny 2, Bungie had this to say on whether future games will become PlayStation exclusives: "No. We want the worlds we are creating to extend to anywhere people play games. We will continue to be self-published, creatively independent, and we will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community."

Back in 2018, Bungie received $100m in funding from publisher NetEase, and trademarked the name "Matter" for an undisclosed project. It has said it plans to release at least one new franchise by 2025.

Today's announcement comes hot on the heels of Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard for an eye-watering $69bn.

Back in 2020, Eurogamer reported that Bungie had discussed the possibility of a buyout with Microsoft, shortly before the latter purchased Bethesda for $7.5bn.

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