Sony officially owns Bungie now (2024)

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Sony officially owns Bungie now? ›

The ink is dry on Sony's acquisition of Bungie, the gaming company that created sci-fi hits Halo and Destiny. Both companies announced the news on Twitter Friday, confirming that the $3.6 billion deal had gone through without any surprises.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially completed its $3.7 billion deal to acquire Bungie - the studio behind Destiny and every Halo game up to Halo: Reach - and has welcomed it into the PlayStation family. PlayStation shared the news on Twitter, saying, "the agreement to acquire Bungie has closed.

The PlayStation maker had announced its intent to acquire the gaming studio in January, and now, that acquisition is complete. At the initial announcement, Sony said (pdf) the deal was worth $3.6 billion, but in an SEC filing on Friday, it said the deal was worth “approximately” $3.7 billion.

But the Bungie/Sony deal seems to have resulted in the best terms of all. Not only is Destiny staying multiplatform and not becoming a Sony exclusive, but Bungie has said it will remain independently operated and be able to release its future new games and IPs multiplatform as well.

Sony will pay $3.6 million to acquire Bungie. Once the deal is closed, "Bungie will operate as an independent subsidiary" of Sony Interactive Entertainment. This means that the company will be led by a board consisting of Pete Parsons, current CEO and president of Bungie, and by the rest of the current team management.

It doesn't. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Sony cannot make any of Bungie's future games exclusive.

Sony 'vastly overpaid' with $3 billion buyout of Bungie, a developer that may make $200 million in revenues a year, analyst says. Sony has "vastly overpaid" with its $3 billion buyout of Bungie, analyst Michael Pachter says. Sony's decision to buy Bungie was a knee-jerk reaction to its competitors making power plays.

Bungie stepped away from Halo and its publisher, Microsoft, in 2007, in order to push forward in the industry rather than be tied to a franchise that had found success at the start of the century, according to community manager David "DeeJ" Dague.

Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones's game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete.

Sony has agreed to acquire video game developer Bungie in a deal valued at $3.6 billion. Bungie, the original creator of “Halo” and current developer of “Destiny,” will continue to independently develop and publish games but will use Sony to accelerate hiring and the development of projects.

Why did Sony pay so much for Bungie? ›

Sony's exclusivity strategy is becoming more flexible.

But why would Sony pay nearly $4 billion to keep putting games on Xbox devices? For one, Bungie has the technical skills and talent pool to help other PlayStation studios create games that can live on other platforms, the cloud and perhaps even mobile devices.

Fundamentally, the Sony acquisition will help drive Bungie's goals beyond games. In an interview with GamesIndustry today, Parsons confirmed that Bungie's plans continue to include broadening its properties to movies, television, and other media, and being a part of Sony will accelerate that process.

While Bungie remained involved in the Halo series by developing games such as ODST and Reach, the rights to Halo remained with Microsoft. To oversee everything Halo, Microsoft created an internal division, called 343 Industries, to oversee the franchise.

"Halo'" was a flagship XBox title from the beginning.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced that they will acquire “Halo” and “Destiny” developer Bungie for $3.6 Billion.

Destiny 2 expansions are no longer available for Xbox Game Pass for Xbox and PC subscribers to download and play. On December 8, 2021, Destiny 2 and its expansions (Forsaken, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light) left Xbox Game Pass on console and cloud.

At Sony, Bungie will remain a standalone game studio but its expertise will be woven into the company's strategy for PlayStation Studios, the division of Sony Interactive Entertainment dedicated to making tentpole games that showcase the company's technological prowess.

As TechCrunch noted, Sony is hoping Bungie's expertise with games like Destiny will help it expand its own live service game offerings. The company plans to spend 55 percent of PlayStation's budget on live service games by 2025, revealed Sony CEO Jim Ryan at a May investor presentation.

Bungie had previously announced in early 2021 that it has a new intellectual property in development, saying at the time that it planned to bring whatever it might be to market “before 2025.” Sony's refocus and the acquisition both suggest that the new project, like Destiny 2, will also be a live-service game, which ...

Explore the incredible sci-fi fantasy universe of Destiny 2, now free to play on PS5 and PS4. Dive into the world of Destiny 2 to explore the mysteries of the solar system and experience the definitive action MMO.

Sony paid around $4 million per developer when these deals are usually far less per worker than that. Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie when other developers like Respawn and Insomniac have been purchased for mere hundreds of millions, and generate more profit.

Does Bungie get royalties from Halo? ›

Nope. Although Bungie created the Halo franchise and made the first handful of games, rights to the franchise still belong to Microsoft.

The news was announced by both companies Monday morning (with industry sleuth Jason Schreier reporting early) and the deal valued at $3.6 billion. That may be just a fraction of Microsoft's recent $60 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, but Bungie is no less a legend in gaming.

Microsoft Layoffs Include Gaming Units Behind Halo, Starfield - Bloomberg.

Bungie's obsession with the number seven may be attributed to 7 being considered a lucky number in Western culture. In spite of the fact that the number seven is featured extensively in Bungie's work, it has generated an aura of apophenia. This cultural nuance can be compared to the 23 enigma.

Following Bungie's completion of their last Halo title, Halo: Reach, 343 Industries was eventually given complete control of the Halo franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of Halo 4, which began in 2009, was completed in September.

However, despite Destiny 2's next expansion likely being it's last, Bungie has reiterated in the past that the studio has no plans to create a Destiny 3. Back in early 2021, design director Jacob Benton went on record to state that Bungie has no plans to create a Destiny 3.

Simply said, Microsoft has NOT acquired Sony.

The game was published by Activision until December 31, 2018, when Bungie acquired the publishing rights to the franchise. It is the sequel to 2014's Destiny and its subsequent expansions.

Sony is buying Bungie, the developer of Destiny and the original creator of Halo, for $3.6 billion. The acquisition arrives shortly after Microsoft's announcement that it intends to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion.

Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000, and its signature title, Halo, helped turn Microsoft's Xbox console into a major game platform. But the developer split from Microsoft in 2007 and stopped making Halo three years later.

Who owns Halo copyright? ›

Everything created by official parties for the Halo franchise are registered trademarks of Microsoft and its associates.

Microsoft bought Bungie in 2000 and now Sony has acquired the studio--for a lot more money. Sony sent shockwaves through the gaming world on Monday when it announced it would buy Destiny developer Bungie for $3.6 billion, marking just the latest huge buyout in the gaming landscape.

They decided they'd had enough after Reach and left. The mantle rests with 343 Industries now, and anyone that wanted to make a halo would have to work for or with them. What does the original team from Bungie Software that created Marathon and Halo think of Destiny?

Microsoft wanted to buy them at under 2 Billion, also wanted exclusivity. Sony was willing to give them 3.6 and complete freedom on where to publish. If the details about the deal are accurate, Bungie really won this deal and Sony kind of got screwed.

Bungie Split from Microsoft due to internal conflict within the company. They wanted to move on from halo, and felt that Microsoft would leave it in good hands. They also felt that they improved from a small studio, and now had the resources to go and make it on their own without the support of anot...

Microsoft says it needs the deal to boost the Xbox

Microsoft says buying Activision would let it put more big titles on Game Pass - its Netflix-style subscription - and make more games for mobile phones, where there are big profits to be made.

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold War, futuristic worlds, and the modern day.

Microsoft officially owns the rights to Halo Infinite and the Halo franchise as a whole, which makes sense considering that Halo games generally come out on Xbox first before making their way to PC.

Did 343 ruin Halo? ›

343 Industries has shepherded the Halo series for over ten years. Despite its great start with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the studio has failed to return the franchise to its original glory. Everything shared here illustrates 343's mismanagement of Xbox's once-flagship franchise.

Bungie found itself a new owner. Bungie, the developer behind the Halo and Destiny franchises, on Monday signed a deal to be sold to Sony in a deal worth a reported $3.6 billion.

Destiny 2 will be supported until at least 2022, will be upgraded for Xbox Series X and PS5. Bungie has confirmed that Destiny 2 will have a long-term future, revealing expansion which will release in 2020, 2021 and 2022, confirming that the next generation of consoles will not herald the arrival of Destiny 3.

Bungie already planning “decades” of Destiny 2 support after Light and Darkness Saga. Although Destiny 2's Light and Darkness Saga is set to conclude with The Final Shape in 2024, a new Bungie job listing has teased the studio still has “decades” of support mapped out already.

Destiny 2 Lightfall will not be the last expansion as Bungie has already confirmed the arrival of the next chapter. Temporarily entitled The Final Shape, the eighth expansion will be released in 2024 and will apparently serve as the conclusion for the The Light and Darkness Saga.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially completed its $3.7 billion deal to acquire Bungie - the studio behind Destiny and every Halo game up to Halo: Reach - and has welcomed it into the PlayStation family. PlayStation shared the news on Twitter, saying, "the agreement to acquire Bungie has closed.

However, it's hard to compare to the fan-speculations and hype generated by Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda Softworks' parent company, ZeniMax Media, for a total sum of $7.5 billion.

Microsoft has Minecraft, Epic Games has Fortnite, and Sony now has Destiny. In a $3.6 billion deal, Sony is acquiring Bungie, the game studio famous for creating the Halo and Destiny universes.

It could be a new IP, a Destiny spinoff, or a TV show. Bungie is reportedly working on several unannounced projects with help from Sony, who acquired the Destiny 2 developer back in January 2022 for $ 3.6 billion.

Halo is a military science fiction media franchise, originally created and developed by Bungie and currently managed and developed by 343 Industries, part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The series launched in 2001 with the first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved and its tie-in novel, The Fall of Reach.

Does Bungie have any rights to Halo? ›

Although Bungie created the Halo franchise and made the first handful of games, rights to the franchise still belong to Microsoft. Bungie began work on the original Halo in 1997, but Microsoft purchased the studio while the game was still in development, acquiring the IP in the process.

In January 2019, Bungie announced it was ending this partnership, and would take over publishing for Destiny. Sony Interactive Entertainment completed its acquisition of Bungie in July 2022, with Bungie remaining as a multi-platform studio and publisher.

Bungie already planning “decades” of Destiny 2 support after Light and Darkness Saga. Although Destiny 2's Light and Darkness Saga is set to conclude with The Final Shape in 2024, a new Bungie job listing has teased the studio still has “decades” of support mapped out already.

Destiny 2 is nearing the end of its current story saga, with the release of The Final Shape signaling the close of the Light and Dark saga. The Final Shape will be the last major expansion of the saga, with minor seasonal patches introduced quarterly to keep Destiny 2 players engaged.

There will be no Cayde-7, even if Cayde is somehow brought back. > Destiny 2 - Lore | Forums | Bungie.net.

In August 2022, it was announced that Destiny 2 expansions would no longer be vaulted.

At Sony, Bungie will remain a standalone game studio but its expertise will be woven into the company's strategy for PlayStation Studios, the division of Sony Interactive Entertainment dedicated to making tentpole games that showcase the company's technological prowess.

They wanted to work on something else. Microsoft effectively would not let them separate themselves from MS with Halo, so to separate they made a deal with MS - sell Halo and they could do what they wanted. They even made a literal declaration of independence. Bungie is not coming back, and never will, and never could.