4 ms·

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

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.
- ingenieros 4y ago
  Most of them left a few years after being acquired by Microsoft to start another company named Wideload Games which was later acquired by Disney. By this point I'd be surprised if anyone from the original core team is still at Bungie. Also, Carmack wouldn't have taken that gig at Oculus if he had fu money. From what I can recall he was screwed over by Zenimax in that acquisition and a quick google search reveals his net worth to be at 50 million which is not too shabby, but certainly nowhere near his contribution to the field. Contrary to popular belief only a handful of game devs have made out like bandits: Tim Sweeney, Gabe Newell and Notch come to mind.
  - no_wizard 4y ago
    or perhaps, he took the gig at Oculus because he had more than enough money to live on for the rest of his days? I guess I don't see that as evidence one way or another. That not withstanding, 50 million is very good, but was actually yes, less than I expected, taking that on face value
theklr 4y ago
From what it looks like PlayStation bought for the now dissolved Sony Online Entertainment. They haven’t been in the live services genre since then for the most part. This partnership is leveraging Bungie’s expertise in this space. Especially being multi platform studio. With them trying to attract more players in this space, allowing independence feels like a steal if half of the 10 LS games by 2026 are a success.

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.

ingenieros 4y ago
Most of them left a few years after being acquired by Microsoft to start another company named Wideload Games which was later acquired by Disney. By this point I'd be surprised if anyone from the original core team is still at Bungie. Also, Carmack wouldn't have taken that gig at Oculus if he had fu money. From what I can recall he was screwed over by Zenimax in that acquisition and a quick google search reveals his net worth to be at 50 million which is not too shabby, but certainly nowhere near his contribution to the field. Contrary to popular belief only a handful of game devs have made out like bandits: Tim Sweeney, Gabe Newell and Notch come to mind.
- no_wizard 4y ago
  or perhaps, he took the gig at Oculus because he had more than enough money to live on for the rest of his days? I guess I don't see that as evidence one way or another. That not withstanding, 50 million is very good, but was actually yes, less than I expected, taking that on face value

theklr 4y ago

From what it looks like PlayStation bought for the now dissolved Sony Online Entertainment. They haven’t been in the live services genre since then for the most part. This partnership is leveraging Bungie’s expertise in this space. Especially being multi platform studio. With them trying to attract more players in this space, allowing independence feels like a steal if half of the 10 LS games by 2026 are a success.