Sony completes $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, which officially joins the PlayStation family

IT House July 16 news, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has now announced that it has completed the acquisition of Destiny studio Bungie. “The agreement to acquire Bungie has come to an end, so now we can officially say… Welcome to the PlayStation family.”

Bungie tweeted: “We’re proud to officially join the incredible PlayStation family, we’re excited about the company’s future, and we’re excited to bring players from all over the world together for lasting friendships and memories. .”

Sony announced on January 31 that it intends to acquire Destiny series developer Bungie for $3.6 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Bungie joins the PlayStation Studios network as an independent subsidiary of SIE. It will retain its former management team and executive board, while Pete Parsons will remain CEO.

This has led Bungie to partner with other Pacific Northwest studios such as Bellevue-based Sucker Punch Productions (Sly Cooper, Ghost of Tsushima), Seattle-based support studio Valkyrie Entertainment and Bend, Oregon-based Bend Studio (Days Gone).

SIE said that the purpose of acquiring Bungie is not simply to add a first-party studio, the technology between the two groups can complement and collaborate, and Bungie’s experience in developing service-oriented games will help SIE achieve PlayStation games to bring PlayStation games to the market. A vision for hundreds of millions of players.

Bungie claims that joining the PlayStation team is the beginning of the company’s emergence as a “global multimedia entertainment company” and that being a SIE first-party studio will not divide the player community, no matter which platform they choose to play on.

The future will rely on Sony’s support to bravely explore areas that have not been explored in the past, and actively recruit new talents to achieve ambitious visions. Currently, Bungie is developing multiple new projects at the same time.

Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said in a speech in May that part of the motivation for the company’s planned acquisition of “Halo” franchise creator Bungie was the desire to see more of a multi-platform business on PlayStation.

“We believe this will be the catalyst to enhance our live gaming service capabilities,” he said. “Our acquisition of Bungie also represents a big step towards being more multi-platform.”

In addition to the ongoing Destiny 2, Bungie has also announced plans to launch at least one more new IP by 2025.

Bungie is reportedly working with Chinese gaming giant NetEase on a new Destiny mobile game. IT House learned that NetEase invested $100 million in 2018 to become a shareholder of the studio.

Sony also announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Canadian developer Haven Studios, co-founded by Assassin’s Creed co-creator Jade Raymond, for an undisclosed sum.

For the full fiscal year to March 2022, SIE acquired five studios, including Dead Return developer Housemarque, Dutch game developer Nixxes Software, UK-based Firesprite, Demon’s Souls studio Bluepoint and Seattle-based Valkyrie.

In addition, they have invested in Discord, Devolver Digital and game streaming service AccelByte, and are also in talks to acquire Bungie and Haven Studios.

Ryan said Sony expects half of its games to be released on PC and mobile by the fiscal year ending in March 2026, and to make that happen, more acquisitions may be necessary.