Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has announced that the company will be acquiring Bungie, the studio behind the Destiny franchise, in a deal worth around $3.6 billion.
Once the deal, first reported by GamesIndustry.biz, is finalised, Bungie will become an “independent subsidiary” of SIE and will be run by a board of directors including many current members of the management team at Bungie, including current CEO and chairman Pete Parsons.
Speaking about the deal, SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan said “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. This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a 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.
These comments were echoed by Parsons, who said that SIE supported Bungie’s goals of developing cross-generation content while also retaining creative independence; “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 multimedia entertainment company dedicated to delivering on our creative vision”
This deal comes in the wake of other high-profile studio acquisitions in January 2022. On January 11, Take-Two announced a $12.7 billion deal to acquire Zynga, with Microsoft announcing a record $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard on January 18.
The next release in the Destiny franchise, The Witch Queen, will be launching on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC and Stadia on February 22.
Words by Megan Roxburgh
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