Sony Acquires Original 'Halo' Developer Bungie

Sony will acquire Bungie, the developer behind Destiny and the original creator of Halo, in a deal worth $3.6 billion USD.

Bungie will become the latest addition to the Sony Interactive Entertainment team, which also includes Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Bluepoint Games and several other studios. Bungie will continue to lead its franchises and develop content for various platforms outside of its deal with Sony’s PlayStation, while also pursuing multi-media entertainment opportunities outside of gaming.

“We will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games,” CEO Pete Parsons wrote in a blog post. “We will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community. Our games will continue to be where our community is, wherever they choose to play.​”

Head of PlayStation Hermen Hulst claimed that the collaboration is a “natural fit” for the gamer in a separate blog post, writing, “Bungie makes games with outstanding technology that are enormously fun to play. They also have unmatched dedication to the communities that play their games, and everyone at PlayStation, and PlayStation Studios, will be excited about what we can share and learn from them.”

“I have spent a great deal of time with the senior team at Bungie and it is clear their experience and skills are highly complementary to our own,” he added. “We will be ready to welcome and support Bungie as they continue to grow, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this incredible team.”

The acquisition follows a slew of high-profile developer partnerships, which include Microsoft’s recent deal with Activision Blizzard as well as Take-Two’s partnership with mobile developer Zynga.

Elsewhere in gaming, Blizzard is creating its first new game franchise since 2018, dubbed Overwatch.