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Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal
- jdalgetty 5y agoSo it's race to buy up all the publishers?
- zerocrates 5y agoBungie isn't really a publisher... I guess they maybe self-publish Destiny 2 now? Microsoft's last 2 big acquisitions have been publishers with many underlying studios all included... I don't know that I can think of Sony really ever doing that; they've mostly bought up individual studios. Of course they're not nearly as big as Microsoft is.
- tantalor 5y ago> they maybe self-publish Destiny 2 now Yes since 2019 https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/News/47569 https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/News/47569
- efficax 5y agoSony is about to sunset Playstation Plus and Now and merge them into a service that will try to compete with Xbox Gamepass, and to do that you need games.
- enos_feedler 5y agoIts not just to compete with Gamepass, it’s moving to where the customer is. Over the next 10 years, where is the growth in gaming going to come from? Hint: not selling more 400 watt white and black boxes dedicated to gaming that plug into screens. Sony and Microsoft are less interested in competing with each other and more interested in protecting the total market from Google, Amazon and Apple. None of those companies have legacy console business, have enormous cash piles and understand there is a bright future in gaming ($$$)
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoGaming will eventually be where if you want to play a game, you just plug into a remote computer system pre-built for it, and the only games that will still be installed on consumer devices will be those which need extremely low latency like shooters and fighting games.
- Scramblejams 5y agoShould I max out my PS Plus subscription because it's about to get converted to something else at a favorable value ratio?
- disambiguation 5y agoyes, MS wants to create the "netflix of games"
- Apocryphon 5y agoOligopolize all the markets!
- HWR_14 5y agoIn the same way Disney, Amazon, NBC and HBO (now ATT time warner) are trying to buy all the back catalogs if content for their streaming services. Being able to play any game from the past (x publishers only) on your Xbox/ps for a monthly fee is a giant fight brewing.
- excerionsforte 5y agoCan't wait to see the new IP Bungie will have for Sony to publish ;)
- steveklabnik 5y agoWe don't know much about the new IP yet, other than: 1. 2025 is the target for launch 2. some job postings have indicated that it's probably cooperative multiplayer in some form
- w4rh4wk5 5y agoI can't wait for PlayStation exclusives which will get shitty PC ports. Yes, I am looking at you FF7 Remake selling for 70 bucks.
- ngngngng 5y agoAnother one! I'm interested to see how this plays out. Most of Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been failures. Studios that had been making iconic games were acquired by Microsoft and in short order were only making shovelware (see Rare post acquisition). Sony doesn't seem to have the same problem. Sucker Punch and Insomniac are good examples of this, their output has been as good as ever since being acquired by Sony. From the outside looking in this seems to be because Sony understands how much creative freedom means to these teams, and they don't inject Sony management into the processes of previously successful game studios. I'd love to hear more of an insider opinion on why acquisitions over the last decade look so differently at these two companies though.
- sumtechguy 5y agoWait wasn't Bungie a MS division at one point?
- willidiots 5y agoYes. Bungie was an independent studio back in the 90's, then MS acquired them for Halo. Bungie split from MS in 2007; the Halo IP remained behind under 343. They were under Activision during the Destiny era until 2019. So if they stayed, they would've ended up back at MS. The M&A merry-go-round continues.
- Hamuko 5y agoThey weren't under Activision, they just had a publishing agreement with Activision in the 2010s, and retained all intellectual property.
- zppln 5y agoHm, surely it must have been later than 2007 that they split? Wasn't Reach made by Bungie?
- HWR_14 5y agoThey split in 2007. MS then had them make reach as an independent company.
- BitwiseFool 5y agoI sense Sony is in dire straits when it comes to both IP availability and their ability to compete with Microsoft.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- zppln 5y agoHm, last time I cared about this stuff was at the end of the 360/PS3 generation and back then MS was in a really bad spot with respect to first party production. To the point where I'm actually amazed they're still in the fight. By the end of that generation the Sony studios where really crushing it, whereas MS' were just pushing GoW, Halo and Kinect shovelware. Has the tables turned?
- capableweb 5y ago> I sense Sony is in dire straits when it comes to both IP availability Maybe you're referring to that they don't have many IPv4s available, because Sony is in no lack of strong Intellectual Properties when it comes to gaming. Guerrilla Games (Killzone, Horizon Zero Dawn), Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank), Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Dexter, Uncharted, The Last of Us), Santa Monica Studio (God of War), Polyphony Digital (Gran Turismo) and more are all part of PlayStation Studios which is a division of Sony IE. Most of the studios in PlayStation Studios are big time IP in the industry.
- rvz 5y agoIt would be silly for the existing mainline franchises of several games to become exclusive to Sony, just like the same with Microsoft with their recent purchases of Activision and ZeniMax. Who doesn't want more money for multi-platform and cross-play games? I would expect that the spin-offs or DLCs and the new IP from those studios to make them exclusive.
- glanzwulf 5y agoCapcom? Konami? Sega? Nah, let's buy this 1 old ass game. Hope Bungie has something in the works that is 3.6B
- HideousKojima 5y agoDoes Bungie even still own the rights to their older catalog (not counting Halo obviously)? Like Myth, Oni, and Marathon?
- glanzwulf 5y agoI don't think they do. I think Oni is with Take-Two. I searched about that one a while back actually as I always loved Oni and wanted to see it come back.
- steveklabnik 5y agoGiven that they recently put a bunch of weapons from their older games in Destiny, but had to modify the names slightly, I suspect the answer is "no".
- camel_Snake 5y agoTheir next game is called 'Matter' and is purportedly more akin to Overwatch than Destiny. 2025ish is the current estimate.
- LegitShady 5y agoI can only see this as some weird way to respond to Microsoft's purchase of Activision although they must have been in discussion in advance of that. This is the meme: "Mom can we get an Activision" "You have an Activision at home!" Activision at home is destiny
- px43 5y agoWasn't Bungie Microsoft's first real gaming acquisition? https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/06/20/microsoft-acquires-bungie https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/06/20/microsoft-acquires-b... Almost 22 years ago.
- jhbadger 5y agoIt depends on what is "real gaming", I suppose. Microsoft bought the Bruce Artwick Organization (creators of the classic versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator) in 1995.
- bsimpson 5y agoI still remember when Bungie was one of the only companies that made games for Macs. The Marathon trilogy was a memorable part of my childhood. Then Microsoft bought them for Halo, and spun them back out (sans Halo). Halo was first demoed by Steve Jobs - it was going to be a Mac game.
- ace2358 5y agoJust to be clear, it was a mac game. It still came out and Halo: Combat Involved ran beautifully on PPC and Intel (Rosetta 1 translation?). Good memories of that game. I still haven’t played marathon :0
- salamandersauce 5y agoYears after the Xbox version. The Mac port came out in Dec. 2003. The Xbox version released in Nov. 2001. It was also published and ported by MacSoft whereas earlier Bungie games like Myth I and II and Marathon were Mac from the beginning.
- kjkjadksj 5y agoI’m willing to bet if halo didn’t come to xbox we wouldn’t be discussing it today and still playing halo games 20 years later.
- HWR_14 5y agoIt was going to be an RTS. Pretty different if you ask me.
- mig39 5y agoNah, here's a preview of Halo for Mac, in 1999. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebI5lkLRTdg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebI5lkLRTdg Before Microsoft bought Bungie. It looks almost identical to the Xbox version from 2001. It definitely started as an RTS, but it had morphed into Combat Evolved before Microsoft bought bungie.
- 5y ago
- synthos 5y agoWho's left (as large distinct publishers/studios)? - Sony - Microsoft - Electronic Arts - Capcom - Ubisoft - Nintendo - Konami - Square Enix - Tencent - Take Two - Warner Brother Games - Embracer Group IP license biz model (Disney, Sega, etc...) I'd include Valve, but they just don't make games anymore edit: Added Embracer
- colinmhayes 5y agoFrom software?
- Trasmatta 5y agoInterestingly, they're owned by Kadokawa Corporation, a large Japanese media conglomerate. Sony has a close relationship with From, so I could see them trying to buy the company, if Kadokawa was interested in selling. Souls games sell really well, although not close to CoD or Destiny numbers. I feel like Elden Ring will be huge, though.
- jackling 5y agoHalf-Life: Alyx was made recently no?
- pphysch 5y agoI think Valve/Steam will get M&A'd when the current leadership retires
- 0xcde4c3db 5y ago
- endisneigh 5y agoGoogle should buy Take Two, make Grand Theft Auto Online, Stadia exclusive, console unnecessary. $5/month. Checkmate.
- supermatt 5y agoFeels like sony + ms are just going to shoot each other in the foot. Gamers will end up with both consoles (sold as loss leaders) to get access to the exclusives and then spread their investment in games between the two. Lose/lose
- synthos 5y agoThey both win if players have and keep both subscriptions simultaneously
- dr_orpheus 5y agoYep, this feels to me like the direction this is going. Sony and Microsoft scooping up game developers to make their subscription worth it for the number of games relative to the cost/month. And I think they've probably both gotten there now. Plenty of people maintain Netflix+Hulu+...+..., so I don't think its a stretch for people to put up $20/month and get both of the subscriptions even after the initial cost of the console.
- esturk 5y agoThat's actually not what they care about the most. Yes it's great to have players that will buy both consoles and both subscriptions. The companies don't worry about them as much because they already know it's a guaranteed segment of the market. What they care about more are players that can ONLY buy one OR the other. That's higher on their priority list. This is about buying the mind shares of tomorrow.
- manojlds 5y agoMicrosoft has said that they don't see Sony and Nintendo as competition and the acquisitions are not about Sony. (but about Google, Amazon, Apple etc) Phil Spencer also said he hopes Sony and Nintendo will preserve the gaming ecosystem unlike those others.
- Hamuko 5y agoThe way Phil Spencer has been talking, it seems to me like they're going to start putting all these acquisitions exclusively on the Xbox, so I'm not sure sure about that "don't see them as competition" or "hope to preserve the gaming ecosystem".
- bladegash 5y agoInteresting! I wonder how this bodes for Bungie's relatively recent cross-play and cross-save functionality in Destiny 2 (or future games). They executed on it extremely well and it has been great to play on PS4 and Steam without any huge issues.
- tapoxi 5y agoThey claim no changes and they intend to remain a cross-platform studio. So I wonder if this ties into Sony's upcoming PS Now replacement gaming subscription service, you get Destiny content while your PS sub is active.
- bladegash 5y agoThat’s halfway reassuring at least. Wonder if it’s gonna be out of their hands though (e.g., Microsoft or Steam inhibiting their ability to do it), as opposed to Sony preventing them. It will be interesting to see if the transition the existing Season system to being included with a PS subscription. I’d imagine they’ll keep expansions as separate purchases, but seasons get pretty pricey on top.
- wing-_-nuts 5y agoI know bungie doesn't own the halo ip anymore, but wow. Bungie, halo, and microsoft will forever be linked in my mind. The fact that sony is going to buy them? I feel like hell has frozen over. What's next? MS buying naughty dog?
- im_down_w_otp 5y agoFor my money the best IP that Bungie ever produced was "Myth", specifically The Fallen Lords & Soulblighter. Sadly, they sold it off to Take Two Interactive who botched the 3rd game in the series and killed off the franchise. I wish I could buy the IP off of Take Two and revive it, but until then I just have to settle for playing the modern ports that are still being maintained.
- steveklabnik 5y agoMyth was absolutely fantastic. They recently put a Claymore from it in Destiny, sadly it's not nearly as good as the shotgun from Marathon or the grenade launcher from Pathways into Darkness.
- im_down_w_otp 5y agoI have Pathways Into Darkness on my vintage Quadra 650 here. :-) Also, we should play Destiny. Not to turn HN into LFG or anything.
- rpmisms 5y agoI'd join the HN Destiny clan in a heartbeat
- steveklabnik 5y agoIf someone starts a Discord I'd be happy to join it!
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
- tus666 5y agoSo will the gaming industry reshape as a Microsoft vs Sony affair?
- Hamuko 5y agoDoubt it, but it will definitely centralise. Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, Take-Two...
- fractal618 5y agoHalo on Playstation?? Cross Platform Halo?? It feels like I suddenly have butterflies in my stomach. <3
- vangelis 5y agoSadly they don't own the Halo IP.
- frenchie14 5y agoBungie does not have ownership of the Halo IP. When they became independent of Microsoft 15 years ago Microsoft retained the rights
- cableshaft 5y agoNo Halo. Destiny 3 will probably be exclusive to Playstation though.
- steveklabnik 5y agoIt's not looking like Destiny 3 is ever going to happen. There was even an interview from March of last year where a director said that they think Destiny 3 would be a mistake. And on top of that, they've laid out Destiny 2's roadmap until roughly 2024, and say that that's not the end then either. We'll see!
- whywhywhywhy 5y ago>There was even an interview from March of last year where a director said that they think Destiny 3 would be a mistake Destiny, especially Destiny 2 was really mismanaged by the directors though. They do have another IP, Matter in the works though.
- steveklabnik 5y agoI started playing in late 2019, but I'm up to almost 2500 hours. Can't speak to before that, but it's only been getting better and better as I've played, imho.
- vangelis 5y agoHopefully someone at Sony really liked Marathon.
- monocasa 5y agoOr Oni.
- brokencode 5y agoLet’s hope this goes better for Bungie than when Microsoft owned them. It’s kind of funny that they’d get out from under the thumb of one corporate overlord only to find a new corporate overlord 15 years later. I guess that points to how unbelievably hard it is for independent game developers to survive, and it makes me kind of sad. If it can happen to Bungie or Blizzard, it can happen to any game developer. Gamers are notoriously hard to part with their money, even though games can deliver an incredible amount of value for each dollar compared to other types of entertainment. I’ve put hundreds of hours into certain games that I’ve paid $60 or less for, whereas renting or going to a movie provides only a couple hours of entertainment for something like $5-$20.
- saynay 5y agoIsn't this the third time? I thought they were owned by Activision for a bit, before leaving again.
- Hamuko 5y agoPublishing agreement, not ownership.
- willis936 5y agoAnd yet they appeared to have an all-time low in creative freedom during that period.
- tylerchilds 5y agoThey partnered with Activision to leverage them for distribution in a ten year deal that they broke part way through, iirc.
- umvi 5y ago> I guess that points to how unbelievable hard it is for independent game developers to survive I thought companies like Bungie, Bioware, etc. sold out. i.e. it's easy to survive if you make blockbuster titles like Halo or Mass Effect, but then a big corp comes by and offers mega bucks to buy you and so you sell out. The solution if you don't want to be "under the thumb of [a] corporate overlord" is to not sell out in the first place.
- lvl100 5y agoClearly Microsoft making divestitures to get under the antitrust hurdle.
- 0xDEEPFAC 5y agoThe masochist in me wants to see these mergers continue so that a big enough power vacuum can appear for new indie studios as creativity and "risk-taking" decline.
- 015a 5y agoOutside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the second most valuable IP suite in the history of gaming (first: Nintendo), but years of failed projects, brain drain, and poor employee culture make acting on that IP difficult. Halo 4, 5, and Infinite have suggested that Xbox can keep dying IP on life support, but reclaiming the glory of Blizzard's past likely isn't in the cards, at least on the medium term. In comparison: Sony paid 20x less for Bungie. What they lack in variety of products, they make up for in, in my view, Potential. Destiny is a great franchise, with lots of fans. The team brings rock solid FPS dev & netcode experience (something Sony's first party studios are at a deficit for). This spectacularly echos previous acquisitions from both companies. Microsoft buys Halo, Gears, Bethesda, AB; all "glory day IP" acquisitions with demonstrated historical mega-success, but weaker more recent market success. Sony goes smaller; Bluepoint, Housemarque, and Bungie; but despite being smaller names, these companies have far more demonstrable ability to produce triple-A content, tomorrow. In other words; Microsoft is looking for name recognition to sell Game Pass; Sony is looking for talent, which the PlayStation name recognition and marketing machine can wring success out of. Most recent tactile example: Returnal was a massive success despite being in a very niche genre, which directly led to Housemarque's acquisition. Its hard to imagine it seeing the same success on Xbox, especially since Xbox did have an exclusive, in a different genre, but with rather similar vibes, release around the same time (The Medium). It was, to my eyes, a market failure (but, of course, I have no insider info). I don't like centralization. But it is interesting to see these two different strategies play out.
- HWR_14 5y agoMicrosoft didn't buy Halo. They bought Bungie, then used them to make Halo. They spin them off, keeping then Halo franchise. Okay, technically Bungie was working on a RTS game called Halo when MS bought them, but it was after the purchase it shifted genres and found its groove. In other words, this "echo" isn't really what you are saying.
- awill 5y agoSony didn't want to do this. Microsoft forced their hand. I'm sure Sony is terrified of a world where MS keeps buying up hugely popular cross platform games and shutting them off. Sony said they want to keep Bungie cross platform. Maybe they're doing this to barter for Call of Duty with MS.
- steveklabnik 5y agoSupposedly it's been in talks for over five months, so unless someone at Sony also knew about the Microsoft deal (which is, of course, possible) it doesn't appear to be directly in response to it.
- ihuman 5y agoIt could be in response to the Bethesda/Zenimax deal, not the Activision-Blizzard one
- donatj 5y agoOf all the companies they could buy, this one certainly feels the most… Spiteful.
- kungito 5y agoWell Sony was always the one aggressive with exclusives, not Microsoft. I only got PS5 to finally catch up on 5-10 exclusives I've wanted to play for the last few years. If it was only up to the specs everyone would go with Xbox Series X
- awill 5y ago>>Well Sony was always the one aggressive with exclusives, not Microsoft. I don't know what you're talking about. All consoles have exclusives. It's just that Microsoft's exclusives were not that good. Sure they had couple, but it's nothing compared to the number of hits from Sony or Nintendo.
- saturdaysaint 5y agoTo me the best explanation for this is as mutually-assured-destruction insurance if Microsoft takes the biggest title in the Activision portfolio, Call of Duty, away from Playstation. As a Sony fan, I'm cautiously optimistic that the relationship could be more fruitful than that. I don't know what Sony's creative secrets are, but they seem good at ushering high quality, interesting games with broad appeal into existence, sort of akin to what you see at HBO or Pixar. I would love to see them exert that influence on a big multiplatform game.
- alanwreath 5y agojust bring back Oni and do more Marathon lore
- 7thaccount 5y agoAs a PlayStation owner, do I finally get to play Halo, or is this everything except Halo?
- AceJohnny2 5y agoBungie hasn't owned Halo since they were spun off from Microsoft in 2007. Current Bungie is Destiny 2.
- 7thaccount 5y agoYuck, zero interest in that :) I wish Sony could make a decent FPS with a great story. Something like Mass Effect or Halo. Killzone was okay I suppose, but the story was lackluster and the combat involved far too much hiding behind boxes.
- myko 5y agoDestiny is the spiritual successor to Halo. Maybe try giving it a shot!
- 7thaccount 5y agoThanks for the advice, but I've read there is lots of farming and it is mainly about online play. Those are two things I avoid. I want to play a single player campaign and beat a game in a couple of days to a couple of weeks tops.
- myko 5y agoI totally hear you - personally, I don't have the time to organize online play and I just ignore that aspect of these games. I just play the single player campaign and don't worry about farming the best equipment.
- Tiktaalik 5y agoMakes EA's purchase of Respawn (Apex Legends) for $400M look like an incredible deal.
- pm90 5y agoThis seems more like something to calm investors rather than interest in taking the IP anywhere. And… I get it, if you’re Sony you gotta show you’re willing to play. Regardless of what MS has said I suspect people don’t really trust them, especially since the Sony/MS duopoly (Nintendo not really competing in the high end console category) isn’t a smooth one. MS wants to dominate the market. XBOX game pass is doing ridiculously well. If they can make XBOX the default console and reduce Sony to a niche player they will absolutely do it.
- sangnoir 5y agoI think it's hilarious. Microsoft buys the studio behind iconic PS characters (Crash Bandicoot and Spyro), and then a few weeks later, Sony buys the studio that made Halo?!
- topkai22 5y agoI know Microsoft originally kept a minority stake in Bungie after letting it spin-off. I wonder if they kept the investment and how much.