PlayStation has announced it intends to buy Bungie. Here is what that means for the future the company for Destiny 2.
Gaming has officially entered an arms race. With Sony’s proposed acquisition of Bungie, after Microsoft picked up both Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, it’s clear this isn’t just a pattern – this is the new normal in the games industry. It feels like for as long as there are major video game developers and companies to be bought, history’s most expensive game of Hungry Hippos will continue. Sony going into its pockets and picking up Bungie feels different from anything Microsoft has done yet, though. Activision Blizzard had fallen from grace. The company is currently being sued by the state of California over heinous allegations of sexism and harassment. On top of that, the once surefire hits like Call of Duty have waned, with Vanguard in particular disappointing last year. Bungie is in a different place. While not without its own woes in workplace culture, as reported by IGN, Destiny 2 is remarkably healthy, and the company has been in a time of growth. It has been hiring exceptionally fast and is currently building a new headquarters in Seattle to house the expansion. On top of that, Bungie has been building interests outside of just Destiny 2, be that ambitions of Destiny TV and films, but also in creating new multimedia and franchises. CEO Pete Parsons told the author of this article, then with Metro UK: “So we started about three years ago, Jason and Jonny Ebbert and Zach Russell and a few of us started working on new incubations. The way to think about that is not just on new games. I think that is often the parlance people use. Actually a process around how we want to incubate the potential for new titles, but more importantly, new and amazing talent.” Other factors do make the deal particularity surprising too. For one, Bungie has been through this all before. The company has had two high-profile splits in its past. Ironically, they come from Microsoft and Activision. Bungie was previously owned by Microsoft, leaving in 2007, and also managed to get Destiny 2 out from under the wing of an Activision publishing deal back in 2019. On top of that, Parsons has been publicly vocal against companies buying Bungie for years. When rumors circulated in 2020 that Microsoft was in talks to buy the company, Parsons got to Twitter to publicly rebuff it. That’s why it’s surprising that Bungie has finally given up that fierce independence it’s championed for years. However, when you consider the climate of the games industry right now, as well as the rather unique terms of this agreement, there’s a lot that makes sense. Destiny 2 is the company’s flagship, and one of the biggest live service games in the world. As with Microsoft ’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the conversation is quickly going to turn to ‘What about exclusivity? Will Destiny 2 or future games be exclusive to PlayStation?’ Thankfully, and curiously, it seems not.
