On Monday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Destiny and original Halo developer Bungie for $3.6 billion, marking the latest deal in a wave of huge video game industry acquisitions.
Sony revealed the studio will remain multiplatform with the opportunity “to self-publish and reach players wherever they chose to play.” That means that Bungie’s future games could make it to platforms other than PlayStation, despite the acquisition.
The formerly independent game developer, best known for creating and developing the Halo franchise on Xbox from 2001 to 2010, was also previously owned by Microsoft Game Studios. After parting ways with Microsoft in 2007, the Halo series was handed off to 343 Industries.
In a post on social media, Bungie confirmed the acquisition and called PlayStation a partner “that shares our dream and is committed to accelerating our creative vision of building generation-spanning entertainment.”
“Bungie has created and continues to evolve some of the world’s most beloved videogame franchises and, by aligning its values with people’s desire to share gameplay experiences, they bring together millions of people around the world,” said Sony chairman, president, and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. “As part of our Purpose to ‘fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology’, we will utilize the Sony Group’s diverse array of entertainment and technology assets to support further evolution of Bungie and its ability to create iconic worlds across multiple platforms and media.”
Per reporter Christopher Dring, PlayStation president and CEO Jim Ryan said that the company is expecting to announce more acquisitions in the future.
Bungie is currently working on further content for Destiny 2, and a new intellectual property. It’s almost certain that Destiny 2, a free-to-play game, will remain on other platforms.
Earlier this month, video game publisher Take-Two Interactive announced it would acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced a week later it would acquire publisher Activision Blizzard in a massive $68.7 billion deal.
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