Major news recently broke that Sony will acquire game developers Bungie for $3.6 billion. Sony’s chief financial officer, Hiroki Totoki, spoke on the company’s purchase of the developers most prominently known for the Destiny franchise and as being the original creators of the popular Halo series. The CFO revealed that Bungie currently has a “major new IP” in the works and that the company behind the PS5 plans to take advantage of the developer’s experience with live service games in the future.
Live service titles such as Destiny 2 and Fortnite have grown in popularity of late. Even studios such as Naughty Dog, known for popular single-player games such as the Uncharted series and The Last of Us are currently working on live service titles, keeping up with current trends.
Totoki said in a recent call with VGC, “Our studios will learn from Bungie, that is a strong wish we have the Bungie side is willing to work closely with us.” While PlayStation has gripped gamers with hit titles such as Spider-Man, The Last of Us, and Ghost of Tsushima, the company has recently said it plans to “develop more service-led experiences.” Sony has also taken strides to bring more focus to mobile and PC-released games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said last May, “We intend to build upon our growing experience and ambition in the games as a service space to complement our continued strength in the narrative-led titles that PlayStation fans know and love.” Ryan more recently said that the Bungie acquisition was done in an effort for Sony “to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience” and to “evolve the gaming experiences that we build.”
Sony clearly sees the foreseeable future of gaming revolving around online services and had that in mind with its purchase of Bungie. It will certainly be interesting to see what the merging developers come up with for future IPs.
