PlayStation Strike Back With new Acquisition

January 2022 has been absolutely insane, especially with our last breaking news story that Xbox had gone in to acquire Call of Duty developers Activision! But that wasn't all that this crazy month had in store for us. It would seem as Sony have hit back against their competitors, and they are doing so with a message. That's right, as you may have seen last night, Sony Interactive Entertainment is planning to acquire Bungie for $3.6 Billion (£2.6billion approx.). The former Halo creators and Developers left Xbox in 2007 in their pursuit to go independent with the incredibly successful Destiny Series. But now, it would seem they will cross over to the former competition to build a future that benefits them, not just in the gaming world.

Now before we go on to what that future will be for Bungie, let's take a moment to talk about their current live service IP Destiny 2. In a blogpost issued yesterday evening, the Destiny Dev team stated that

"Bungie's bright future is only possible with you - our amazing community of Guardians.​"

This was explained more in an image you can check out below. This image states that Destiny 2 will stay on all platforms, Bungie will maintain all creative control/rights and that every player will get the same experience no matter what console they are playing on. This is excellent news for the live service game, and I am sure a massive relief to the Destiny community. You can find out more about how destiny 2 will be affected by checking out the blog post for yourself, which includes a handy FAQ section here. 

Moving away from Destiny and into the world of Sony Interactive Entertainment, both Jim Ryan (President & CEO SIE) and Herman Hulst (Head of PlayStation Studios) have taken the helm in PR as usual. Their excitement clearly cannot be hidden. In a recent SIE blog post, Jim Ryan wrote:

"Bungie's successful track record in multi-format publishing and live game services will assist us in realizing our ambitions to take PlayStation beyond the console and increase our potential audience."

Now, this, to me, is a statement that can be taken in multiple ways. My take on this is that Sony wants to make more of their games multimedia, much like they are doing with Uncharted. It would seem  SIE are looking to branch other games out into the world of movies, TV, and other multimedia platforms. Could this coincide with Bungies new mystery IP? I, for one, hope so as I would love to see how Sony bring the gaming world beyond the console. You can read more from Jim Ryan here on the SIE Blog page.

Herman Hulst also shared similar thoughts to Jim Ryan, praising Bungie for their fantastic games in the past, whilst also sharing his excitement for the future collaboration starting

"Bungie's technical expertise, coupled with their track record of building  highly engaged communities, make them a natural fit for collaboration with PlayStation Studios."

This excitement is nothing but positives for the PlayStation community, who have been sitting and watching as their favourite games get snatched up by competitors in aggressive acquisitions. If you are one of those who was getting nervous, well, I have even more good news. In an interview by GamesIndustry.Biz with Jim Ryan of SIE and Pete Parsons of Bungie, Jim Ryan was quoted saying:  

"We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go."

The question is, does that mean we will be seeing more moves by SIE in the near future or will we be waiting a lot longer than these encouraging words suggest?

What are your thoughts on the SIE/Bungie Acquisition? Are you glad Destiny will remain Multi-Platform and independently Published? Join us on the 3Bit Facebook and Twitter pages and let us know what you think in this article's comments