Sony to acquire Bungie

Sony has officially entered into an agreement to acquire the Destiny developer, Bungie Inc. for the sum of $3.6 billion. The deal will see Bungie incorporated into the PlayStation Studios family and will also give Sony Interactive Entertainment access to Bungie's knowhow when it comes to creating live service games.

"We've had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn't be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family," said Sony Interactive Entertainment's President and CEO, Jim Ryan. "This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience. We understand how vital Bungie's community is to the studio and look forward to supporting them as they remain independent and continue to grow. Like Bungie, our community is core to PlayStation's DNA, and our shared passion for the gamer and building the best place to play will now evolve even further."

It's noted in the announcement press release that the deal will see Bungie continue to be operated by its current board of directors and management team, and that it will serve as an independent subsidiary of SIE, assuming the transaction, which is still subject for approval, goes through.

As for what this means for the future of Destiny 2, Bungie CEO and chairman, Pete Parsons stated, "We will continue pursuing our vision of one, unified Bungie community, building games that value our community and meet them wherever and however they choose to play. Both Bungie and SIE believe that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IP will become. Our original universes have immense potential and, with SIE's support, we will propel Bungie into becoming a global multi-media entertainment company dedicated to delivering on our creative vision."

This does seem to suggest that with the help of Sony, Bungie will be elevating its efforts of making Destiny more than just a video game. It does however, still beg the question as to what will happen to Destiny 2's presence on Xbox consoles. Fortunately, a blog post by Bungie has provided an answer to that as well.

"Our commitment to Destiny 2 as a multi-platform game with full Cross Play remains unchanged. We want you to play The Witch Queen on February 22, 2022, on the platform of YOUR choice."

This also includes future expansions, including The Final Shape in 2024, which Bungie also stated; "Our plans for the Light and Dark Saga are unchanged".

As for when the deal is expected to go through, that has yet to be officially stated.