By Seth Gellman
On Monday, January 31, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it would be purchasing Bungie, a video game maker, for $3.6 billion. This comes after a $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft just weeks ago.
Bungie is best known for making games like Destiny and Halo. Sony said that Bungie would still operate independently and have free rein to publish games for other platforms.
Microsoft first purchased Bungie in 2000, and their game Halo helped turn Microsoft’s Xbox into a major player in the gaming industry. Bungie split from its parent company in 2007 and discontinued Halo three years later. Halo is now made by 343 Industries, which is owned by Microsoft.
Jim Ryan, Sony’s Interactive Entertainment’s president, said, “This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience.”
Destiny 2 remains #6 on Sony’s top ten most played PS5 games by gameplay hours. This also continues Sony’s investment in live service games. Since 2020, they have invested $450 million in Fortnite’s creator Epic Games.
In the past, Sony has espoused sentiments that it would be against multiplatform games, but that has changed in recent years. In an interview with GamesIndustrybiz.com, Ryan stated, “We are starting to go multiplatform, you’ve seen that.”
As multiplatform games continue to grow in popularity, Sony’s move toward them is unsurprising. Much of the gaming industry has changed in recent years, and investing in companies like Epic Games and Bungie signal a clear shift toward multiplayer games.
