Just when you thought the excitement of Xbox splashing the cash was over, Sony has just found a cool $3.6 billion down the back of the sofa to grab Halo and Destiny creators Bungie.

The purchase will allow Sony to expand its gaming portfolio with a highly respected gaming studio that makes some of the best first-person shooters in the industry. Sony plans to integrate Bungie into its existing interactive entertainment business segment.

The move could be a risky one for Bungie, as it has decided to buy itself out of ownership to go independent in the past, but if successful it could be an incredible boon to both sides.

Bungie posted a blog with the statement: “in [Sony Interactive Entertainment], 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, SIE 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.​”

Bungie will be operating independently from Sony and continue to publish multi-platform

Sony remains adamant that the studio will continue to operate independently and publish multi-platform games. Destiny 2 was of particular concern, as its community is spread across Xbox, PlayStation and PC. But its millions of players can sleep easy knowing nothing is going to fundamentally change.

On a newly created Bungie FAQ page the studio said: “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 22nd, 2022, on the platform of YOUR choice.”

A few years down the line, when Bungie creates Destiny 3 or whatever new IP they may have been cooking up, a solid commitment to multi-platform may well get thrown on the scrap-heap, we reckon.

Sony get Bungie’s expertise to helps strengthen it’s own platform

Bungie is undoubtedly a seasoned veteran when it comes to delivering reliable live-game services, and this aspect is what CEO Jim Ryan decided to highlight:

“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,” said Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Bungie on the other hand has ambitions of expanding beyond just video games, which Sony as an established entertainment company can provide.

“In SIE, 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,” said Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie.

A decent get for Sony, but it’s obviously dwarfed by Microsoft’s recent acquisitions

Overall, this feels like a reasonable win for Sony and a slight loss for Microsoft, albeit one that doesn’t seem necessary if the games are going to remain multi-platform.

Bungie is one of the most successful game studios on the planet, and it has the potential to produce some excellent titles exclusively for the PS5 going forward if it chooses to do so.

Given that Xbox now owns so many massive FPS franchises – Call Of Duty, Doom and Overwatch to name a few – perhaps Sony felt they had to shore up a relationship with one of the few remaining independent experts in the genre.

Whatever the case, 2022 is only 1 month old and we’ve already had tens of billions splurged on games company acquisitions. So the real question is, who’s next??