5 ms·

Sony completes $3.6B deal to buy Bungie

82 points by afrcnc 4y ago

Foivos 4y ago
One can hope for a remake of Oni.
- black_knight 4y ago
  That could be great (or dissapointing)! Oni (together with Max Payne, which also came out in 2001) really opened my eyes to the story telling abilities of video games. Of course both Oni and Max Payne had really cool gameplay to go along with the story.
- ajcoll5 4y ago
  You'd need to talk to Rockstar and hope it gets more resources than their GTA "definitive" editions.
- mrdmnd 4y ago
  I can't believe anyone else remembers this game but my best friend in elementary school and I used to spend our entire sleepovers playing Oni. What a legend.
- moomin 4y ago
  It’s kind of startling the extent to which no modern game has managed to be better at the things Oni was good at decades later. You’d have thought there’d be a slew of imitators by now.
  - Foivos 4y ago
    I have heard that the Batman games are similar. Never played them, though so I do not know how similar they actually are.
tsomctl 4y ago
Two things, that are obvious to gamers but really confused me: Sony owns PlayStation. This is the Bungie that made Halo. Yes, Microsoft owned them at one point, but sold them 15 years ago.
- sosborn 4y ago
  Also the same Bungie that made the Mac classic: Marathon. > After showing the game at the Macworld Expo, Bungie was mobbed with interest and orders for the game. The game was not finished until December 14, 1994; Jones and a few other employees spent a day at a warehouse assembling boxes so that some of the orders could be filled before Christmas.[24] The game was a critical and commercial success,[27] and is regarded as a relatively unknown but important part of gaming history.[29] It served as the Mac alternative to DOS PC-only games like Doom and System Shock.[16] The game's volume of orders was unprecedented for the studio, who found that its old method of mail or phone orders could not scale to the demand and hired another company to handle the tens of thousands of orders. Marathon also brought Bungie attention from press outside the small Mac gaming market.[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie
  - black_knight 4y ago
    I will leave this here: «The SECOND Greatest Story in Gaming! HALO» https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI5hF_9h900 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI5hF_9h900
    - otachack 4y ago
      This is great, thanks so much for sharing! The creator does an amazing job conveying a story with little to no effects, which so many other YT creators rely much on.
      - black_knight 4y ago
        Colville is great! His presentation style has been a big inspiration for my own lectures and videos. He is also on Twitch, where he streams NetHack (and other stuff): https://www.twitch.tv/matthew_colville https://www.twitch.tv/matthew_colville
amelius 4y ago
Can title contain "game studio"?
- backspace_ 4y ago
  Is there s bungie non game studio?
haunter 4y ago
Nothing good will come from this considering what they are doing with Destiny 2, literally removing paid content all the time. They are trying to be a paid game and F2P at the same time > welcome to the GaaS model. The whole thing should die but alas it won't seeing Sony paid that much just to rip off people even more.
- crocodiletears 4y ago
  Sony's first-party monetization strategy's been quite good ime. If anything, I'd expect them to curb Bungy's worst instincts on that front.
  - haunter 4y ago
    I wish I was that optimistic "Through close collaboration with Bungie and the PlayStation Studios, we aim to launch more than 10 live service games by the fiscal year ending March 31 2026." https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-playstation-to-launch-more-than-10-live-service-games-by-2026 https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-playstation-to-launch-more... Gran Turismo 7 which has nothing to do with Bungie is already full of microtransactions, and it's not even a F2P game https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/gran-turismo-7s-microtransactions-are-live-and-gt-sports-5-cars-now-cost-40/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/gran-turismo-7s-mic...
    - lttlrck 4y ago
      GT7 mtx are easily avoided unless you have impulse control issues. There is one point in the game where there is an option to buy credits in the store. They are completely unnecessary to enjoy to game to the fullest.
      - neighbour 4y ago
        I always wondered if GT7's micro transaction drama was overblown. Are you saying it's not as bad as game journalists have made it out to be? I quite like the GT games and haven't bought it simply because it's $120+ in Australia. When it comes down in price, I'll check it out.
downrightmike 4y ago
I thought they didn't want to be owned. Maybe it was just not wanting to be owned by activision. Maybe this is what they need to get 3rd party studios to help with content again. They are also working on a new game 'Material', maybe this helps with that.
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  They need capital for their upcoming projects (the next AAA game and also mobile games) and Sony has movie and TV studios that can take the Destiny universe and expand it into a series.
- JeremyReimer 4y ago
  They weren't owned by Activision-- Activision was only the publisher for Destiny, and never acquired the studio. When the publishing agreement came up for renewal, Bungie and Activision agreed to go their separate ways, for their own reasons. It's likely that Bungie wanted more control and more independence from the partnership. Bungie's aversion to being owned stems from their Microsoft days, when they yearned to be free from having to make Halo sequels. However, the reality is that game development is expensive. Destiny doesn't have a monthly subscription fee, so the income for the studio drops dramatically between paid content expansions. It's tough to keep that going without outside support, given the cost of creating said content. (Obligatory disclaimer: I work for a division of Activision, but these opinions are solely my own)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
superkuh 4y ago
Historically when mega-corps buy Bungie they do it because they want exclusives. I'm not sure how much I trust Sony to act against their own interest with this new leverage. >In 1999, Bungie announced its next product, Halo: Combat Evolved, originally intended to be a third-person shooter game for Windows and Macintosh. >On June 19, 2000, on the ninth anniversary of Bungie's founding, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division. Halo would be developed as an exclusive first-person shooter title for the Xbox. >On October 1, 2007, Microsoft and Bungie announced that Bungie was splitting off from its parent and becoming a privately held limited liability company named Bungie, LLC. >In April 2010, Bungie announced that it was entering into a 10-year publishing agreement with publisher Activision Blizzard. >Bungie terminated its publishing deal with Activision in 2019, after eight years; as per their agreement, Bungie retained all rights to Destiny and will self-publish future installments and expansions. >Bungie announced a major expansion of its firm in February 2021. In addition to more than doubling its headquarters space in Bellevue, Washington, Bungie announced plans to open a new studio in Amsterdam by 2022. >On January 31, 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intent to acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion. ... Both companies stated that the deal would not affect platform availability or exclusivity for Destiny 2 but instead was geared towards media beyond video games that Bungie had been interested in pursuing for some time.
- kayson 4y ago
  It makes me wonder what causes a company who wanted to separate from Microsoft to change to one who wanted to partner with Activision, and again to one who wanted to be acquired by Sony. Is it just money? It's certainly not the same company it was in the mid 2000s
- no_wizard 4y ago
  if through this the founders were majority holders, they must be, to say the least, some of the most extremely successful business people in all of gaming so far. Microsoft paid a good sum of money for them before, and then they got spun off, and had successful runs with Destiny, and I'm sure the Activision partnership was lucrative, and now Sony buys them straight for 3.6 Billion USD. Only Carmack has had this kind of success I think.
pipeline_peak 4y ago
When you look past Halo and everything Bungie has done since, it isn’t shocking news

82 points by afrcnc 4y ago

Foivos 4y ago

One can hope for a remake of Oni.

black_knight 4y ago
That could be great (or dissapointing)! Oni (together with Max Payne, which also came out in 2001) really opened my eyes to the story telling abilities of video games. Of course both Oni and Max Payne had really cool gameplay to go along with the story.
ajcoll5 4y ago
You'd need to talk to Rockstar and hope it gets more resources than their GTA "definitive" editions.
mrdmnd 4y ago
I can't believe anyone else remembers this game but my best friend in elementary school and I used to spend our entire sleepovers playing Oni. What a legend.
moomin 4y ago
It’s kind of startling the extent to which no modern game has managed to be better at the things Oni was good at decades later. You’d have thought there’d be a slew of imitators by now.
- Foivos 4y ago
  I have heard that the Batman games are similar. Never played them, though so I do not know how similar they actually are.

tsomctl 4y ago

Two things, that are obvious to gamers but really confused me: Sony owns PlayStation. This is the Bungie that made Halo. Yes, Microsoft owned them at one point, but sold them 15 years ago.

sosborn 4y ago
Also the same Bungie that made the Mac classic: Marathon. > After showing the game at the Macworld Expo, Bungie was mobbed with interest and orders for the game. The game was not finished until December 14, 1994; Jones and a few other employees spent a day at a warehouse assembling boxes so that some of the orders could be filled before Christmas.[24] The game was a critical and commercial success,[27] and is regarded as a relatively unknown but important part of gaming history.[29] It served as the Mac alternative to DOS PC-only games like Doom and System Shock.[16] The game's volume of orders was unprecedented for the studio, who found that its old method of mail or phone orders could not scale to the demand and hired another company to handle the tens of thousands of orders. Marathon also brought Bungie attention from press outside the small Mac gaming market.[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie
- black_knight 4y ago
  I will leave this here: «The SECOND Greatest Story in Gaming! HALO» https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI5hF_9h900 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI5hF_9h900
  - otachack 4y ago
    This is great, thanks so much for sharing! The creator does an amazing job conveying a story with little to no effects, which so many other YT creators rely much on.
    - black_knight 4y ago
      Colville is great! His presentation style has been a big inspiration for my own lectures and videos. He is also on Twitch, where he streams NetHack (and other stuff): https://www.twitch.tv/matthew_colville https://www.twitch.tv/matthew_colville

amelius 4y ago

Can title contain "game studio"?

backspace_ 4y ago
Is there s bungie non game studio?

haunter 4y ago

Nothing good will come from this considering what they are doing with Destiny 2, literally removing paid content all the time. They are trying to be a paid game and F2P at the same time > welcome to the GaaS model. The whole thing should die but alas it won't seeing Sony paid that much just to rip off people even more.

crocodiletears 4y ago
Sony's first-party monetization strategy's been quite good ime. If anything, I'd expect them to curb Bungy's worst instincts on that front.
- haunter 4y ago
  I wish I was that optimistic "Through close collaboration with Bungie and the PlayStation Studios, we aim to launch more than 10 live service games by the fiscal year ending March 31 2026." https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-playstation-to-launch-more-than-10-live-service-games-by-2026 https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-playstation-to-launch-more... Gran Turismo 7 which has nothing to do with Bungie is already full of microtransactions, and it's not even a F2P game https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/gran-turismo-7s-microtransactions-are-live-and-gt-sports-5-cars-now-cost-40/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/gran-turismo-7s-mic...
  - lttlrck 4y ago
    GT7 mtx are easily avoided unless you have impulse control issues. There is one point in the game where there is an option to buy credits in the store. They are completely unnecessary to enjoy to game to the fullest.
    - neighbour 4y ago
      I always wondered if GT7's micro transaction drama was overblown. Are you saying it's not as bad as game journalists have made it out to be? I quite like the GT games and haven't bought it simply because it's $120+ in Australia. When it comes down in price, I'll check it out.

downrightmike 4y ago

I thought they didn't want to be owned. Maybe it was just not wanting to be owned by activision. Maybe this is what they need to get 3rd party studios to help with content again. They are also working on a new game 'Material', maybe this helps with that.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago
They need capital for their upcoming projects (the next AAA game and also mobile games) and Sony has movie and TV studios that can take the Destiny universe and expand it into a series.
JeremyReimer 4y ago
They weren't owned by Activision-- Activision was only the publisher for Destiny, and never acquired the studio. When the publishing agreement came up for renewal, Bungie and Activision agreed to go their separate ways, for their own reasons. It's likely that Bungie wanted more control and more independence from the partnership. Bungie's aversion to being owned stems from their Microsoft days, when they yearned to be free from having to make Halo sequels. However, the reality is that game development is expensive. Destiny doesn't have a monthly subscription fee, so the income for the studio drops dramatically between paid content expansions. It's tough to keep that going without outside support, given the cost of creating said content. (Obligatory disclaimer: I work for a division of Activision, but these opinions are solely my own)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

superkuh 4y ago

Historically when mega-corps buy Bungie they do it because they want exclusives. I'm not sure how much I trust Sony to act against their own interest with this new leverage. >In 1999, Bungie announced its next product, Halo: Combat Evolved, originally intended to be a third-person shooter game for Windows and Macintosh. >On June 19, 2000, on the ninth anniversary of Bungie's founding, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division. Halo would be developed as an exclusive first-person shooter title for the Xbox. >On October 1, 2007, Microsoft and Bungie announced that Bungie was splitting off from its parent and becoming a privately held limited liability company named Bungie, LLC. >In April 2010, Bungie announced that it was entering into a 10-year publishing agreement with publisher Activision Blizzard. >Bungie terminated its publishing deal with Activision in 2019, after eight years; as per their agreement, Bungie retained all rights to Destiny and will self-publish future installments and expansions. >Bungie announced a major expansion of its firm in February 2021. In addition to more than doubling its headquarters space in Bellevue, Washington, Bungie announced plans to open a new studio in Amsterdam by 2022. >On January 31, 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intent to acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion. ... Both companies stated that the deal would not affect platform availability or exclusivity for Destiny 2 but instead was geared towards media beyond video games that Bungie had been interested in pursuing for some time.

kayson 4y ago
It makes me wonder what causes a company who wanted to separate from Microsoft to change to one who wanted to partner with Activision, and again to one who wanted to be acquired by Sony. Is it just money? It's certainly not the same company it was in the mid 2000s
no_wizard 4y ago
if through this the founders were majority holders, they must be, to say the least, some of the most extremely successful business people in all of gaming so far. Microsoft paid a good sum of money for them before, and then they got spun off, and had successful runs with Destiny, and I'm sure the Activision partnership was lucrative, and now Sony buys them straight for 3.6 Billion USD. Only Carmack has had this kind of success I think.

pipeline_peak 4y ago

When you look past Halo and everything Bungie has done since, it isn’t shocking news