On January 31, Sony announced plans to buy the hugely successful game developer Bungie for $3.6bn. It comes as competing console manufacturers snap up developers and publishers in an effort to tie down exclusive content. Microsoft, for example, has made some huge waves over the last year, making multi-billion dollar deals to buy ZeniMax Media (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom) and Activision Blizzard (Warcraft, Diablo, Call of Duty).
Sony has significantly smaller pockets than Microsoft but has been making purchases of their own, with Bungie the most eye-catching. The studio was founded in 1991 and focused on Macintosh games in the 1990s before their breakout hit Halo in 2001, with their most recent output being the popular Destiny multiplayer shooter.
What games and IPs come with Sony’s purchase?
First up, it’s worth underlining that Sony doesn’t get the rights to Halo, Bungie’s most famous franchise. In 2007, Bungie split from Microsoft to become a private company, with that deal including them selling all rights to Halo to Microsoft. The space shooter series was given to 343 Industries, which recently released Halo Infinite on Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass.
However, Sony does now control the uh, destiny of Destiny. The smash-hit co-operative shooter launched in 2014, with the sequel, Destiny 2, following in 2017. Though the game is now getting a little long in the tooth, it’s still very popular and will get a spike in users when hotly anticipated expansion The Witch Queen releases on February 22, with 2022 also seeing four full seasons of new content for the game. Beyond that, Destiny 3 has to be in some stage of development, though Sony has assured players they plan for the franchise to remain multiplatform.
We also know Bungie is developing an unknown new IP unrelated to Destiny due in 2025. Sony would have had a full heads up on this prior to purchasing the studio, so might be so confident it’ll be a hit that they know snapping up the studio now will be a great deal in the long run.
There is also one big series still owned by Bungie that may be due a revival. Before Halo, the studio built a solid fan base with the Marathon series of first-person shooters. These science fiction adventures have deep and well-written lore and forward-thinking game design way beyond their contemporaries. Bungie retains the rights to this IP, so could resurrect the franchise if Sony comes knocking asking for an answer to Halo. Other early 90s titles Bungie still owns include 1992 RPG Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete and 1993 shooter Pathways into Darkness, though neither are promising prospects for a comeback.
Bungie also developed real-time strategy games Myth: The Fallen Lord, Myth II: Soulblighter, and anime-inspired action game Oni in the late 90s and early 00s, but the rights to those have been held by Grand Theft Auto publishers Take-Two Interactive since 2000.
Based on that, it’s clear Sony doesn’t see the Bungie purchase as tying down a lot of IP, as only Destiny is worth a reasonable amount of money. The real value comes from the studio’s reputation for delivering groundbreaking action experiences, the talented creative staff, their technological know-how and innovations, and their potential to create successful new (presumably PlayStation-exclusive) IPs.
Somehow I doubt Bungie’s story will end here, though. In the three decades since the company was founded, they’ve been owned by Take-Two, Microsoft, and now Sony. Each previous time they’ve produced some big hits, made a bunch of money, and become independent again. Perhaps when the early 2030s roll around, and they’ve gifted Sony with a massive new gaming franchise, Bungie will begin drawing up plans to go it alone once more.
Whatever the case, Sony is rolling the dice that Bungie will make back their $3.6 billion quickly. Right now, it looks like the odds are very good.