Legendary developer to join PlayStation as independent, multi-platform studio and publisher.
Today I am happy to announce Bungie will be joining the PlayStation family.
First off, I want to be very clear to the community that 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.
Bungie’s world-class expertise in multi-platform development and live game services will help us deliver on our vision of expanding PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers. Bungie is a great innovator and has developed incredible proprietary tools that will help PlayStation Studios achieve new heights under Hermen Hulst’s leadership.
Here are a few words from Hermen about this exciting acquisition and what it means for gamers.
“I am absolutely thrilled to announce a new member will be joining the PlayStation family!
– Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios
I’ve been a fan of Bungie for many years. I have admired and enjoyed the games that they create – and have great respect for their skill in building worlds that gamers want to explore again and again.
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.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.“
Here are a few words from Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie.
“We believe games have limitless potential, and that to do anything worthwhile in entertainment, we must bet big on our vision, on our studio, and on our incredible team of trusted creators who build unforgettable worlds that truly matter to people.
– pete
In Sony, we have found a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independence that beats in Bungie’s heart. Like us, Sony believes that game worlds are only the beginning of what our IPs can become. Together, we share a dream of creating and fostering iconic franchises that unite friends around the world, families across generations, and fans across multiple platforms and entertainment mediums.
Today, Bungie begins our journey to become a global multi-media entertainment company.
CREATIVE FREEDOM
“Since taking flight in 1991, Bungie has always charted the future with our own star map – a path that is driven by our people and for our community. We are continuing that journey with new worlds in development, and we can’t wait to share them with you.
With Sony, the potential for our universes is unlimited. Our future games will take bold steps into unexplored spaces for Bungie, continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, and will always be built on a foundation of creating meaningful, lifelong friendships and memories.
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.
With Sony’s support, the most immediate change you will see is an acceleration in hiring talent across the entire studio to support our ambitious vision. If this speaks to you, and you want to help us put a dent in the universe, we are hiring across all disciplines for Destiny 2 and for all new worlds beyond.
THREE DECADES AND COUNTING
“What makes our worlds come to life is our community and our people in the studio. Our people are the soul of Bungie. Empowered by our people, we have pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible and transformed who we are as a company.
Over the past 30 years, the inviting worlds we’ve built have turned into thriving communities, and that community is the true magic. These communities have taken Bungie beyond games. They have forged life-long bonds, and humbled us with the real, meaningful good they drive within us and the world.
More than anything, Sony understands that our people and our community are both the priority, and the heart of our success, and are willing to stand alongside us as we continue to use our platform to drive action towards a more welcoming and equitable world. Our goal is to build a place where the world’s most creative and talented people can come and do their best work, no matter who they are, where they are from, or how they identify.
That’s the real dent in the universe we want to make — the one we want to last beyond us.
Be a part of this future with us. See you Starside.“
Ready for a new ip from them.
I really enjoyed the epic journey that were Bungie’s Halo games so I was very excited for Destiny and then they made me feel like a hamster. I’ve heard that Destiny 2 has improved substantially and is much better game but I have a hard time trusting giving any more of my time to game that I felt was specifically designed to treat their player base like hamsters spinning an arbitrary wheel.
I am hoping with Sony backing their creative freedom and nobody asking to make hamsters out of players, their next IP can be as epic a gaming franchise as their Halo legacy.
YES
“I’ve been on record talking about increasing the size of the PlayStation community, and expanding beyond our historic console heartland. This can take many forms,” Ryan said. “We are starting to go multiplatform, you’ve seen that. We have an aggressive roadmap with live services. And the opportunity to work with, and particularly learn from, the brilliant and talented people from Bungie… that is going to considerably accelerate the journey we find ourselves on.” – Jim Ryan
Congratulations on an amazing acquisition! As a lifelong PlayStation player (since 1995) I am happy to see Sony acquire such a phenomenal team like Bungie! I’ve been a fan of Bungie since the first Halo & I have enjoyed a lot of Destiny as well. I really hope future titles from Bungie will include a dedicated Sony exclusive. I want to see Bungie make a narrative driven game (naughtydog style) for PlayStation while continuing their live service games for multiplatform. The thing that excites me the most is knowing that whatever new IP Bungie is working on, it’ll be developed with PlayStation in mind meaning fully integrated and amazing experiences for PlayStation fans! Happy gaming y’all 😁🎮🙌
Assuming this is a deal focused on new IP from Bungie potentially being exclusive while Destiny stays multiplatform and to support Spartacus with Bungie games day 1.
I also believe a huge part of this acquisition is to use their tech in other online Sony games.
Personally, not a fan. I would’ve loved Konami, Square, or any publisher with a stock of IP but obviously Sony is betting on the future and they need to counter Microsoft in the shooter market.
Congratulations. Please go for Konami we need that metal gear series & castlevania they clearly are sleeping on them & I think they’d be better off under your ownership
I’m amazed to see that 1.2 billion of that investment is to keep talent at the studio.
At first I thought it was expensive, but then I saw it was awesome what you’re doing to keep talent from those companies.
The next one to purchase would be Capcom, yes over Square-Enix. You already have fantastic relationships with Square-Enix and they already are making exclusive deals with PS.
It’s the same reason why Xbox didn’t go for EA, because they know EA won’t say no to getting acquired by Microsoft but they already have a great relationship and will probably be the last piece if they continue to buy publishers.
Bungie had the better deal in this acquisition, I think they’ll fit right in.
Make Capcom and Bandai Namco, again they’d keep their independence, to block Microsoft.
I really don’t like all these acquisitions and hopefully they will get blocked because they won’t stop until they bought everything given Microsoft’s history. Heck they wanted to buy Nintendo rather than making their own console at first.