Sony acquires Bungie, the game studio famous for creating Halo: What does that mean for gaming enthusiasts
India Today
Sony's recent takeover specifically refutes any exclusivity clause for Bungie's games. Why did Sony spend billions of dollars on the studio then? More importantly, is this a new trend that suggests cross-platform support for more popular gaming titles in the future?
The gaming world is seeing massive deals to align game developers with the leading platforms in the category. Sony's acquisition of Bungie Inc is the most recent example of this. A $3.6 billion deal has been lined up to bring the developer of hugely popular gaming franchise Destiny and the creator of Halo under the umbrella of PlayStation Studios. This is, however, not a deal that follows the way conventional takeovers go down in the gaming world. There is an unusual clause attached to it, and many are now wondering why Sony splashed such a huge amount for Bungie.
You see, the general idea when a gaming major brings such a developer house under its conglomerate is to have an exclusive gaming title for their player base. PlayStation has seen that with its God of War and Horizon franchises, two massively played role-playing adventure games that take players through some majestic settings. Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Uncharted are some others in PlayStation's kitty.
The appeal for an exclusive title is simple - players will have to buy your hardware to play these games. In the above cases, this means more sales of PlayStation units for Sony, riding on the back of the gamer community dedicated to playing these titles and their sequels over the years.
Lately, though, there has been a shift in this strategy.
Sony's acquisition of Bungie made clear sense in this regard. Though its Halo franchise is now under the Microsoft umbrella, Bungie is still the sole distributor of Destiny and Destiny 2, the two parts of an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter (fps) video game series. If Sony had bought Bungie with the purpose of making these exclusive to PlayStation players, the deal would have been another classic takeover in the world of gaming.
That, however, is not the case.
Sony and Bungie's deal comes with the condition that the latter will operate independently for its game titles. In doing so, it will be free to run these titles on any platform it deems fit, including PlayStation's immediate rival Xbox.