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Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), the Japanese video game and online entertainment company, has decided to pay $3.6 billion for Bungie, the largest independent games developer. The PlayStation manufacturer’s statement comes two weeks after Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the most prominent gaming industry deal ever, prized at almost $70 billion. SIE stated that this acquisition would provide it with access to Bungie’s world-class approach to Live game services as well as technical expertise. Bungie, which has formed several well-known franchises in the video game industry, such as Destiny, Marathon, Halo, and Myth, will continue to be multi-platform. Its primary focus is on the long-term development of Destiny 2 and the expansion of the Destiny universe.
Bungie, located in Bellevue, Washington, announced on Jan 31st that they had found a partner in Sony who wholeheartedly supports them and would want to uplift their vision to help develop generation-spanning entertainment.
Sony’s share price jumped 5.92 percent to $113 at 1:22 p.m. in New York shortly after the official statement. As of 2:55 p.m. ET, it was trading 3.78 percent higher at $110. Sony’s American depository receipts, on the other hand, were delayed as a result of the news.
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Sony now has direct exposure to Bungie’s live service games, particularly “Destiny.” Bungie, on the other hand, will continue to function individually, with the capacity to freely publish, and its games will remain multiplatform.
The corporation will be led by the Board of Directors of Bungie, which is chaired by Pete Parsons, who is also the CEO. According to Sony, the acquisition is likely to be completed subject to certain conditions, which include regulatory requirements.
It’s one of Sony’s greatest successful outcomes to date, but Bungie was acquired earlier. Bungie became self-reliant after Microsoft purchased it for $30 million just after the official launch of Halo 3. Bungie also finished a decade-long partnership with Activision in the year 2019. Sony has had a great partnership with Bungie since the beginning of the Destiny game franchise, according to Sony CEO, Jim Ryan, who expressed his excitement and welcomed the studio to the PlayStation community.
Bungie is also about to launch a new franchise. Jobs advertised for the fresh IP, codenamed Matter, originally described it as a multi-player action adventure with character-based gaming. Many have drawn comparisons to Valorant or Overwatch, but Bungie has demonstrated with Halo & Destiny that it never creates something that is exactly as what currently exists. Bungie hasn’t made an official statement, but it did promise last year that at least one new IP would be released before 2025.
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Aside from certain extremely successful IPs (particularly Destiny), there are 800 developers with free-to-play as well as Gaming-as-a-Service expertise.