During its latest earnings call, Sony was asked questions about its recent acquisition of Bungie. One question was about what Bungie wanted to gain out of it being acquired by Sony. Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki answered the question and provided a lot of the general reasons one would expect. However, one of the reasons that stood out is Sony’s position as a multimedia company.
According to Totoki, Bungie wants to turn some of its IPs into more than just games. Totoki mentioned merchandising and, tantalizingly, movies as examples of what Bungie wants to do with its IPs. Totoki said, “Bungie want to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner, and that’s their hope. For that, we believe we can help that – we have [Sony] Pictures and [Sony] Music, and Bungie can leverage our platform so that their IP can flourish and grow big.”
Sony has been trying to do the same thing for years. The company has been successful in movies and games separately but it hasn’t been able to crossover between the two with much success. In 2016, Sony released a Ratchet & Clank movie as a tie-in to the 2016 Ratchet & Clank game. Unfortunately, the movie bombed at the box office and appears to have been largely forgotten since then.
Sony finally got an Uncharted movie off the ground after over a decade of trying. The company had been trying to make an Uncharted movie for so long that Mark Wahlberg went from playing Nathan Drake to playing the much older Sully. With the Uncharted movie finally being released this month, it seems as though Sony may have finally figured out the game-to-movie transition. Perhaps Bungie will be wanting Sony to do the same thing with Destiny. Although, hopefully, it doesn’t take over a decade to get made.
