Oh, it’s on ladies and gents. The battle of the video game giants continues as Sony announces that it is buying Bungie, the video game studio/developer behind titles like Halo, Destiny, Myth, Oni, and more. The commotion started when Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision Blizzard, which was a huge deal given the many titles underneath the company’s umbrella. Now, Sony swung back with its own latest acquisition of a familiar name.
That being said, it is a light blow considering the size of Bungie and the titles it is currently behind. Which is pretty much just the Destiny series. The Halo series was eventually passed on to 343 Industries when Bungie separated from Microsoft to become its own independent company. 343 Industries currently manages the franchise and all future games, and Microsoft maintains full rights to everything. So Sony won’t be getting those games.
They are, however, getting the original company behind it all. A company that helped create the Xbox’s popularity over the years. A developer that could easily create the next Halo-like franchise (which I doubt will ever be Destiny, sadly).
The acquisition will only cost Sony $3.6 billion (I say “only” since Activision Blizzard cost Microsoft $68.7 billion, setting records for a video game studio buyout). Future titles from Bungie will be completely owned by Sony. However, the company did say that it plans to continue cross-platform support and play nicely with said titles.
So when you think about it, you have to ask “is this really an act of swinging back?” as I don’t think it is so much. Sony is simply adding a few more titles to its ownership and moving on. It’s mostly about “who” it was, since Bungie was a major building block of Microsoft’s and Destiny was a game published in partnership between Bungie and Activision until 2019, where Bungie eventually took over publishing of the franchise. So it does, kind of, feel a little personal in ways.
