Sony is buying Bungie for $3.6 billion

Sony Interactive Entertainment is set to acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion, marking the third large purchase in the games industry in less than a month.

Bungie will be an “independent subsidiary” of Sony and will be run by a board of directors that includes the studio’s current management team and CEO Pete Parsons, according to a report by Games Industry.

Bungie is most well known for its Destiny franchise. The company is currently working on an expansion for Destiny 2, as well as new games.

CEO of SIE Jim Ryan said he’s thrilled to bring Bungie under the Sony umbrella.

“We’ve had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family,” Ryan said.

In a blog post, Bungie said it has found “a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independence that beats in Bungie’s heart.”

This is the third large purchase in the gaming industry after Microsoft announced that it’s purchasing Activision Blizzard just a few weeks ago and Take-Two announced its intent to purchase Zynga. The Microsft deal is currently set to go through in June 2023 with a price tag of $68 billion, while the Take-Two deal will cost $12.7 billion.

This isn’t Bungie’s first acquisition by a gaming platform. Microsoft owned Bungie in June 2000, ensuring that Halo would be an exclusive title for Xbox’s launch. In 2007, just after the launch of Halo 3, Bungie signed a 10-year deal with Activision and went on to make the Destiny franchise.

An image that contains Destiny’s shared vision says “every player should have an amazing Destiny experience, no matter where you choose to play.” Although the deal was just announced, it seems that Bungie intends to keep Destiny in the hands of its players by not limiting where the game is played.