By now you have probably heard the news that Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially announced that they are going to acquire the popular developing game studio, Bungie.
The key element of this acquisition states the deal to be about $3.6 Billion. And Sony Entertainment Studio has indicated that after these, Bungie will be a part of their overhead and will run as an independent subsidiary. This means, Bungie will remain a multiplatform game development studio and will possess the choice of self-publication of games for the platforms they deem right for the gamers.
About Bungie
Bungie is a popular game developing studio, well known for its popular projects. They are the original creators of the Halo game franchise. Within the years they pushed their primary focus, as an independent studio, on games like the Destiny franchise. Destiny 2 is currently their biggest running project and the developers have mentioned that they are working on a new IP.
Sony’s take on the Bungie deal
Sony Interactive Entertainment has released a statement on the official PlayStation blog site with a detailed post. Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has talked about the key details of the project.
He mentioned the close bond and partnership between Sony and Bungie that was made possible through the Destiny franchise. He gave a warm welcome to Bungie on joining the PlayStation family. Many gaming enthusiasts were in the talks on how this deal will affect the company and their whole indie aspect. Ryan, through the blog post, has assured that Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio after the acquisition. He had also mentioned that they will also be a part of the PlayStation Studios organization where both the groups can collaborate on various future projects.
alongside the deal, PlayStation studios will be getting access to Bungie’s proprietary tools for their use. This will be very helpful in the bigger picture as the two come along.
Bungie’s Take on Sony buying them
Bungie has also released their thoughts through a separate blog post. They mentioned Sony to be “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.”
They also reaffirm the most valid question that arises from the whole deal, which is retaining their publishing and developing independence. They will be supporting and will commit to the gaming community on the platforms ‘they choose to play’.
Sony’s $1.2 Billion Employee incentive program
Buying such a big company will surely create certain problems of retaining previous workers. To ensure the developers and other employees stay in the company after the acquisition, Sony has proposed a $1.2 billion plan. This is two-thirds of the entire deal that they are ready to spend so the staff doesn’t leave. The cost of the entire acquisition will be expensed out through a period of several years.
This explains the entire $3.6 Billion price point as a third of it will be used for deferred payments to employee shareholders and other retention incentives.
Our Thoughts
With the Bungie buyout, this will mark Sony’s sixth acquisition since the previous year. To name a few, BluePoint and Valkyrie Entertainment are two of them. It seems the two rivals of the gaming industry, Xbox and Sony, are bringing massive changes to the community.
Xbox has recently been making big moves with their $7.5 Billion buyouts of Bethesda and the $68.7 Billion acquisition deal for the troubled company, Activision-Blizzard. There will be a lot of changes coming along as the deals pile. Now for the gamers and the community, these could stand out to be a hit-or-miss situation. It will either all come along and create great coming games or might just ruin the flow.
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