Destiny and Halo developer will maintain its creative freedom and remain in charge of its video games
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced it will acquire Destiny and Halo developer Bungie for $3.6 billion.
Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and continue developing and distributing its video games. The details of the collaboration between Sony and Bungie have not been fully disclosed at this time. However, what has become known is that Bungie will continue to support Destiny 2 and its upcoming expansion that it is preparing.
“I have spent a lot of time with Pete Parsons, Jason Jones, and the Bungie management team to develop the right relationships where they will be fully backed and supported by Sony Interactive Entertainment and enabled to do what they do best — build incredible worlds that captivate millions of people,” said Jim Ryan, President, and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
“Bungie’s world-class expertise in multi-platform development and live game services will help us deliver on our vision of expanding PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers. Bungie is a great innovator and has developed incredible proprietary tools that will help PlayStation Studios achieve new heights under Hermen Hulst’s leadership” he added.
Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, announced the acquisition on Twitter, welcoming Bungie to the PlayStation family and provoking ‘tones’ of tweets about the deal.
“I am thrilled to welcome Bungie to the PlayStation family! Bungie creates community-driven games with outstanding technology that are enormous fun to play, and I know that everyone at PlayStation Studios will be excited about what we can share and learn together” he wrote.
As Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie explained, the company will maintain its creative freedom and continue its journey to the video game industry independently with the support of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
“In Sony, we have found a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independence that beats in Bungie’s heart. Like us, Sony believes that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IPs can become. Together, we share a dream of creating and fostering iconic franchises that unite friends around the world, families across generations, and fans across multiple platforms and entertainment mediums” he highlighted.
Sony’s new deal comes immediately after Microsoft acquired Activision, and many analysts believe it’s a strategic move by PlayStation’s company. What is certain, however, is that a new landscape is emerging in the gaming industry, with the two key players, Microsoft, and Sony, gaining even more power.
PlayStation x Discord
At the same time, PlayStation and Discord have announced that gamers are now able to link their PSN account from Discord and display their PlayStation®4 or PlayStation®5 game activity in their user profile.
“Back in May of 2021, our friends at PlayStation announced a new Partnership with Discord, working together to deliver new ways to integrate your PlayStation experience with Discord for your friends and communities to see. Of course, everything needed to stay super-secret at the time, so we couldn’t share anything quite yet,” Discord announced.
“If you’ve ever connected your Discord account to another service that allows you to display your activity, it works similarly here: once your Discord account is linked, the game you’re currently playing on either PS4™ or PS5™ will be shown as your activity, just like that! You can even opt to display your PlayStation™Network online ID on your profile so your Discord friends can add you and tag along. It’s especially great for knowing if your friend is currently playing a game that supports cross-play on another platform,” the company explained about the new feature.
