Sony to buy Bungie, the developer of Destiny, in $3.6 billion deal

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Monday that it is acquiring Bungie, the developer of Destiny and the original creator of Halo, in a deal worth $3.6 billion. As part of the deal, Bungie will join Sony’s PlayStation family.

Sony said in a blog post that the Bungie acquisition will take PlayStation beyond the console and increase its potential audience. 

“This is a strategic step towards continuing to evolve the gaming experiences that we build,” Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO, said in a blog post. “Bungie’s expertise in delivering a world-class service approach and long-term community engagement is extremely compelling and will support the development of several future live services titles from PlayStation Studios.”

Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and publisher. “As such, we believe it makes sense for it to sit alongside the PlayStation Studios organization, and we are incredibly excited about the opportunities for synergies and collaboration between these two world-class groups. 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. 

“We remain in charge of our destiny. We will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games. We will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community. Our games will continue to be where our community is, wherever they choose to play.​” said PEte Parsons, CEO and chairman of Bungie. 

I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome Bungie to the PlayStation family! Bungie create 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. pic.twitter.com/VySocfBxtx

— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) January 31, 2022

Sony’s acquisition of Bungie comes amid a string of studio and publisher acquisitions. Earlier this month, Take-Two Interactive announced that it plans to acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion. Shortly after, Microsoft, once the owner of Bungie, announced its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.